The Self-service Library is located at the south gate of Dongguan Library, which is an independent area. On Sep. 28, 2005, the Self-service Library was opened to the public. It is the first 24-hour self-service library with no person on duty in China.

　The Self-service Library covers an area of 700 square meters and has a collection of over 50,000 books, newspapers and periodicals. Its environment is comfortable, furnished with desks and chairs. In addition, it is equipped with self-service machines, automatic test equipment, video surveillance, access control system, alarm system, etc, which are connected with the monitoring center of the main building. The Self-service Library is not restricted by the closing time of Dongguan Library. It offers service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

　The Self-service Library welcomes all readers of Dongguan central and branch libraries. They can scan their reader's cards, go into the Self-service Library, look for books and check out by themselves. Since its opening, each year over 63,000 readers have used the Self-service Library and around 6,8000 items got circulated, which accounted for 3% of the total circulation number of Dongguan Library. The Self-service Library solves the problem that readers cannot enter the collections during closing time, and gives our readers a great convenience because they have access to partial collections 24 hours a day. It was praised as "Never-closed-library" by Loriene Roy, former president of American Library Association.