The collection, storage, processing, and dissemination of scientific and technical information make an important basis for economic and social development as well as for scientific development. A nation has to develop the right mechanisms and modalities to collect, store, process, and disseminate scientific and technical information tailored to its own system. In China, scientific and technical information institutions constitute a major contingent collecting, storing, processing, and disseminating this information, and have played an important role in national scientific and technical, economic, and social development. The scientific and technical system reform staged in the 1980s, and the development of Internet technology in the 1990s, have spurred on the reform and development of Chinese scientific and technical information institutions. This paper examines the current and future development trends of these institutions, in the context of system reform, operational evolutions, challenges, and future development trends, based on statistical data analysis and information obtained from the meetings, field investigations, and literature surveys. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)