The national first-class, first-level or first-grade libraries (in Chinese: 国家一级图书馆) are state-level libraries that have been deliberated and decided upon by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The seventh evaluation was conducted in 2023.

National first-level libraries must meet six standards:

• The building area should not be less than 6,000 square meters.
• The annual subsidy funding should not be less than 800,000 RMB.
• The ratio of staff with a college degree or above should not be less than 60% of the total workforce.
• The annual total number of books added to the collection should not be less than 5,000.
• The annual number of books lent outside should not be less than 200,000 times.
• The score for "modern technology equipment, database construction, and automation network construction" evaluation should not be less than 80 points.^[1]

On June 22, 2005, the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China announced a list in "Decision of the Ministry of Culture on Naming First, Second, and Third-class Libraries,"^[2] naming 344 libraries as "first-class libraries," 412 libraries as "second-class libraries," and 684 libraries as "third-class libraries."

In 2009, the Ministry of Culture decided to conduct the fourth evaluation,^[3] with 480 first-class libraries, 410 second-class libraries, and 894 third-class libraries.^[4]

The fifth evaluation was conducted in 2013, with 859 first-class libraries, 640 second-class libraries, and 731 third-class libraries.^[5]

In May 2018, the sixth evaluation was conducted, with 969 first-class libraries, 519 second-class libraries, and 1,034 third-class libraries.^[6]

The seventh evaluation was conducted in December 2023, with 1,302 first-class libraries, 680 second-class libraries, and 741 third-class libraries.^[7]

• National Library of China
• National first-grade museums of China