Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province (), also called "Guangdong Provincial Zhongshan Library" or "Guangdong Provincial Ancient Books Protection Center", is the provincial library of Guangdong in south China, and located at its capital city of Guangzhou. The library was established in 1912 and has developed into a large comprehensive public library, a national first-class library, and a "National Civilized Library". The library is opened to foreigners as well.
The predecessor of Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province was "Nanyuan" (), a famous scenic spot in Guangzhou established by scholars during the Ming Dynasty.
The more recent predecessor was the "Book Collection Building of Guangya Bookstore" () in the late Qing Dynasty (now the Sun Yat-sen Literature Library).
The library was formally founded in the first year of the Republic of China (1912) and was originally named "Guangdong Provincial Library".
In 1919, Liang Dingfen's descendants donated more than 600 cabinets of books, totaling more than 20,000 volumes, to the Guangdong Provincial Library in accordance with his will. This was the first batch of privately donated books received by the library, and the number was twice the total collection of the provincial library at that time.
In 1950, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the library was renamed "Guangdong People's Library".
In 1955, Guangdong People's Library and Guangzhou Municipal Zhongshan Library merged and were renamed "Guangdong Provincial Library".
In 1986, the library moved to the new building at No. 213 Wenming Road.
In 2002, the library was renamed the "Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province", in memory of Dr. Sun Yat-sen or Sun Zhongshan.
On December 10, 2006, the Guangdong Provincial Government approved the expansion project of Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province with an investment of RMB 500 million and officially started construction. According to the plan, the first phase of the project would cover the location of the provincial library, and the second phase would be the former site of Guangdong Provincial Museum, which was to move to its new building in Zhujiang New Town.
The first phase of the renovation and expansion project, which lasted five years and was a major project of the 11th Five-Year Plan, was completed in 2010. The library held a completion and opening ceremony on December 31, 2010.
The second phase of the project, built on the former site of the Guangdong Provincial Museum, was completed in 2019.
On June 18, 2023, the theme library was opened for service.
In 2025, Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province was selected into the List of National Ancient Book Restoration Centers.
Currently, the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province is composed of the Wenming Road Main Library and five branch libraries.
Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province is under the direct leadership of Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism. The main responsibilities are:
By the end of 2024, the total collection of the Library reached about 9.83 million volumes; the total number of registered readers is about 1.37 million. The annual circulation of documents is about 2.11 million volumes, the average number of readers served per day is more than 10,000.
The library has a collection of more than 100,000 types of Guangdong local documents in more than 400,000 volumes, including Guangdong local chronicles, family genealogies, Guangdong historical materials, Guangdong writings, Sun Yat-sen documents, newspapers, periodicals, maps, etc. It is the largest Guangdong local document center in China.
The intelligent book collection and sorting system launched in 2020 became the first technological innovation in the global library industry led by China.