The Lanzhou Branch of the National Science Library (Lanzhou Branch Library) was founded in 1955 as the Lanzhou Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Library. After several transformations, it assumed its current name in 2006.

　　The Lanzhou Branch Library is an important part of the nation’s S&T documentation and information service system, and a major component of CAS’s documentation and information service system as well. The library serves as a branch of the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) as well as the Science and Technology Library of Gansu Province, which is jointly run with the government of Gansu Province.

　　The Lanzhou Branch Library also serves as the Chinese Research Information Center for Global Change for the Chinese National Committees of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, the International Human Dimension Program on Global Environmental Change, the World Climate Research Program and DIVERSITAS, an international biodiversity science program. Due to its extensive collections and electronic information resources as well as its sound information analysis and service capacity, the Lanzhou Branch Library is the largest comprehensive S&T library in Northwest China. It is becoming a first-class information service center, an excellent S&T information analysis and consultation institution, and a highly regarded think tank in the field of resources and environment sciences.

　　The Lanzhou Branch Library’s mission is to serve scientists, S&T managers and CAS policymakers and promote S&T innovation in China. To fulfill its goal, the Lanzhou Branch Library provides scientific literature and information resources as well as S&T information analysis and consultation services to CAS decision-makers and scientists and graduate students at CAS institutes. In addition, it provides academic journal editing and publishing services in the fields of resources and environmental sciences and is also involved in science popularization.

　　The Lanzhou Branch Library comprises the Information Analysis and Strategic Research Department; the Subject Consultation Service Department; the Information Technology and Systems Department; the Journal Editing and Publishing Center; as well as a planning office and general management office.

　　The Lanzhou Branch Library is home to several centers designed to facilitate strategic research and decision-making in a wide variety of areas. They are: the S&T Information and Knowledge Integrated Service Center; the Strategic Study and Decision-making Consultation Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences; the China Global Change Information Center; the Western Regional Development Research Center; the Digital Academic Publishing Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences; the S&T Evaluation and Knowledge Computing Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences; and the Semantic Knowledge Management Center.

　　As of the end of 2013, the Lanzhou Branch Library had 120 employees, including 11 professors, 22 associate professors and 60 assistant researchers. The Lanzhou Branch Library has a doctoral and a master’s degree program in information science that enrolls about 10 students every year, as well as a doctoral program in human geography and physical geography in cooperation with Northwest Normal University that enrolls six students every year.