On May 18th, the State Council issued a notice that decided regard the date from May19th to 21st in 2008 as a national mourning. It is the first time that China held national mourning for the tens of thousands of people killed by serious natural disaster since the foundation of the People's Republic of China, and it is also the first time that China's national flag flew at half-mast after a complete flag-raising ceremony for mourning the compatriots struck by natural disaster.

On May 19th, the national flag flew at half-mast in the east square of National Library of China. At 2: 25 p.m., the mourning words were broadcast in the Library. At 2: 28 p.m. Monday, the whole Library was fixed while air raid sirens and horns of automobiles wailed in grief.

Zhan Furui, NLC director, Zhang Yafang, NLC deputy director, Chen Li, NLC deputy director, and other directors from different divisions and departments got together in the assembly room, and mourned for the victims killed by Wenchuan Earthquake. The staff and the readers stood in silence to mourn for the victims hit by Wenchuan Earthquake.

After the mourning ceremony, a conference, hosted by Zhang Yafang, NLC deputy director, was held in the assembly room, which mobilized the staff to donate money for the disaster areas once again. Zhan Furui, NLC director, made a speech in the conference, which proposed that the NLC staff should give donation for the disaster areas once again and National Library of China should play important roles for helping reconstruct libraries in the disaster areas.

The search, rescue and disaster relief efforts are continuing, and there are also lots challenges. The staff showed that they would like to console the dead with much better practical actions.