The digital library, which opened Saturday, aims to allow users to share 80 percent of China's written resources through the Internet within three years, the Xinhua news agency said.

The database covers information from periodicals, newspapers, books, theses and on-line resources and information on many fields such as natural sciences, engineering and social sciences, according to Xinhua.

The database was jointly developed by the China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House (CAJEPH) and Tsinghua Tongfang Optical Disc Co., Ltdeight years ago.

"During the construction of the database, we stressed the importance of protecting intellectual property rights and paid over 31 million yuanmillion US dollars) to writers," said Pan Longfa, president of CAJEPH.

A survey by China's Press and Publication Administration in June showed only 15 million Chinese documents on science, economy, culture and education could be found on the Internet -- accounting for about 40 percent of the documents printed.

The survey also showed that only 150,000 Chinese language books were available online with legal copyrights for Internet use -- just around five percent of the books available in China.

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