Riding the wind of rebirth

"We didn't even know this search box had this function."

"Yes, we usually just enter a simple query, usually for searching book catalogs."

The two researchers looked at each other in bewilderment.

Hanwen Library Search Engine is a professional version of the online yellow pages search engine. It has now been licensed to many partner universities and libraries. However, this tool is mainly used by liberal arts students. Due to the limited computer programming skills of users, this is the current situation.

“I’ll send an engineer over. We can use this as an opportunity to teach everyone how to use programming tools to efficiently utilize our Hanwen professional search engine,” Zhou Zhi said.

"That's great!" Liu Yijie exclaimed happily. "It seems our digitalization efforts are still lagging behind and need to be accelerated!"

“It’s not everyone’s fault.” Zhou Zhi put himself in their shoes: “After all, there is no course called ‘Computer Programming’ in the undergraduate courses for liberal arts students. Moreover, our database is a graph database. The language and tools of this database are very different from those of commonly used relational databases. The JAVA language we use is not a mainstream language. It’s normal that everyone is not familiar with it or even knows about it.”

“Zhouzi is currently working on solving this problem,” Mai Xiaomiao said. “We will gradually enable the search engine to understand text and context, and eventually achieve intelligent search functionality.”

"That's just an idea right now, it's a long way from being realized." Zhou Zhi waved his hand and said, "We've taken up too much of Grandma Yan's time today, shall we end our visit here for now?"

Yan Zhenwei smiled and said, "It's alright. Knowing that there are such precious versions among the ancient books donated by my father is something that makes me, as a descendant, extremely happy."

"It's our fault for not doing our job well. It's been decades, and the work on organizing the books donated by Elder Yan is still not finished. There's still so much academic space for research; we're truly ashamed." Liu Yijie felt a little embarrassed. "If everyone were as insightful and intelligent as Zhouzi, that would be amazing! They would have solved the problem that has troubled us for so many years in the blink of an eye!"

"It's not that I'm particularly good," Zhou Zhi quickly waved his hand. "It's the advancement of modern research tools that gave me this advantage."

“Scholars in the past were truly learned, memorizing all kinds of versions and completing the process of literature retrieval and comparison in their minds. The materials were only used for reference. It is this kind of painstaking work that makes us younger generations marvel,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “Now this kind of work is done by information systems, which is the strength of computers. In fact, we have been lazy and taken advantage of loopholes.”

"Once people increase their use of search engines, there are many directions in which this type of research can be carried out."

“That’s right, especially for libraries like ours with rich collections,” Liu Yijie said with obvious delight. “It’s truly a wonderful tool!”

"Xiao Liu, let's go to the conference room again and discuss the scanning issue," Old Gu said, unable to bear it any longer.

"Oh right, right, there's still the second half," Liu Yijie said. "I was just getting carried away. This way, please."

Ancient book restoration generally involves several major steps, such as disassembling the book, removing pages, matching and repairing paper, pressing and binding. However, in detail, there are more than twenty procedures. The problems that need to be repaired include insect infestation, mold, acidification, oxidation, oil, water, glue, and physical damage.

Especially with ancient books, many people treat them like ordinary books, often simply sticking up torn parts with tape. If ancient books are treated like that, then the restoration of that page will be extremely difficult.

Fortunately, after thorough inspection, Yan Gusheng's "Phonology Series" was found to be in excellent condition due to its late printing date and proper preservation. Therefore, it basically did not require restoration. Only three steps were needed: disassembling, scanning, and binding. At the same time, it needed to be digitized and added to the digital library as a digital classic.

This is a business that the Ancient Books Restoration Center and the Library of Sichuan University have been doing for a long time, so it's not difficult.

Only after Zhou Zhi gave his assurance did Yan Zhenwei and Liu Yijie feel relieved.

However, there's no time to look at the museum's treasured collections, such as the "Hongwu Southern Canon," "Book of Chen," "History of the Southern Dynasties," and "Chronicles of Huayang," today.

That evening, Zhouzhi called home. His mother, knowing that the two had returned to Chengdu, asked them when their winter break was and when they would return to Manzhou.

However, returning home was out of the question for the time being. Zhou Zhi quickly reassured his overly excited mother, saying that he was about to go to the capital to attend the Unicode Consortium World Congress and the opening ceremony of Ma Ye's private museum. After that, he would go to Hangzhou to accompany Yan Zhenwei to look at paintings. He said that he would probably only have time to go home after he finished these things.

Thankfully, there are no final exams, so there's no need to worry about Zhouzhi's grades, her mother comforted her on the phone, leaving Zhouzhi speechless. But it's understandable that her mother had such concerns before; after all, much of her knowledge wasn't acquired in the classroom, but rather through learning and practice, utilizing fragmented time.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Zhi realized that it was almost the end of the semester and he should get together with his classmates.

He dialed Zhao Xing's number: "Monkey, where are you?"

"Where else could I be? Accompanying Wenxin through evening self-study, of course," Zhao Xing said casually.

"Are you still having evening self-study sessions? Is Wenxin planning to take the postgraduate entrance exam?"

"Why is she taking the postgraduate entrance exam? She says she wants to cherish her limited time in college. There's still a whole semester left, I don't know what she's so appreciative about." Zhao Xing lowered his voice for the last sentence.

"Hahahaha..." Zhou Zhi couldn't help but laugh when he automatically pictured the lewd expression on this guy's face when he said those words.

"Where are you and Xiao Miao? Why did you think of calling me?" Zhao Xing asked.

"We're back in Chengdu. Shall we get together with everyone?"

"We definitely have to get together!" Zhao Xing exclaimed excitedly. "Wow, they came back so quietly! I'll notify both dorm rooms right away!"

"Wait a minute!" Zhou Zhi quickly asked, "Where is everyone gathered now? You have to tell me!"

"Oh, we usually eat at Tang Laohu Yuer Feichang Chicken outside the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. You and Xiaomiao haven't tried it yet, have you? We both think it's pretty good. Why don't we get together there?!"

"Okay, is the shop easy to find?"

"It's easy to find, just over a hundred meters in front of the affiliated high school."

"okay!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Zhi said to Mai Xiaomiao, "I made plans with my classmates to go out for hot pot tonight."

“Okay!” Mai Xiaomiao naturally had no objections: “Jiajia and Qiaoqiao are here too, right?”

"That's for sure!"

"That's great, it's been so long since I've seen them."

Tang Laohu'er Fatty Intestine Chicken is extremely popular. Due to the demolition of Hongqi Village, the entire food street there was demolished, causing a large number of students to move here to spend their money. In the blink of an eye, the business of restaurants and beverage shops in the Sichuan Conservatory of Music area has more than doubled.

This meant that Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao had to park their cars quite far away and then walk over.

There are many plastic stools placed at the entrance of the taro chicken restaurant, where many people sit chatting, drinking tea, and eating melon seeds. These are diners who arrived late and the restaurant was full, waiting for tables to be turned over.

The vast majority of them were young people, and they looked like college students.

A small group was standing at the entrance, and upon seeing Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao, they clapped and laughed, "This guy has made himself a rare guest!" (End of Chapter)