Page 24 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

Guoxin LI / The construction of modern public cultural service system and the development of public libraries: 023
An analysis about the views on accelerating the construction of modern public cultural service system

institutions. As statistics show, the total number of venues of Worker’s Culture Hall, Activity
Center for Women and Children, and Youth Activity Center above county level is over 6 700,
which substantially exceeds the total number of public libraries and cultural centers. In this case,
government at all levels should enable these non-cultural institutions to provide free cultural
services to the public through coordinated and integrated management. Only in this way can
the promotion of national reading program and overall efficiency of public library services be
improved on a large scale.
Secondly, national reading programs should be carried forward by encouraging extensive
participation. The national reading program has consecutively been written down in the Decision on
some major issues concerning deepening the reform of cultural sector to prosper socialist culture

at the 6th Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the 18th CPC
National Congress, as well as the Report on the work of government in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
The national reading has been highly elevated as a national strategy for China’s culture. As the
mainstay of promoting national reading, the public library needs to deepen and popularize reading
promotion with more efficient approaches. “To deepen” means that various methods should be
adopted by the public library, for example, the central-branch system, mobile services, extended
services, resources supply, and also, in a wide range of places, such as families, communities,
schools, rural areas, enterprises, government units, etc. In short, “to deepen” reading promotion is
to create a reading-oriented society. Furthermore, “to popularize” reading promotion indicates that
more characterized reading activities with current trend and public tastes should be provided in the
public library so that more people can be motivated to participate in this huge program. According
to the latest survey, public participation is far less than expectation. The 2013 statistics (Ministry
of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, 2014) show that per capita of public library collection
was merely 0.3 all over the country, and the participation rate of total population was as low as
3.3% in 2013, which lagged far behind developed countries. On account of this, the public library
should exert more emphases on “extensive” reading rather than “intensive”. Hence, the primary
task is to enhance both participation rate and service efficiency simultaneously. According to
previous experiences and graded reading principles, to promote preschool children’s reading and to
recommend excellent reading materials to primary and secondary school students are the two best
approaches. Additionally, the public library should create more characterized activities, for example,
to vigorously promote parent-child reading activities, picture-book reading programs, various
interesting reading activities, etc. Only through these initiatives can public library turn the slogan
“reading promotion starts from children” into practice. However, at present-day Chinese public
cultural service system, efficient approaches are desperately needed to promote the basic reading
services, particularly to those “left-behind” children of migrant workers, a vulnerable group who
need more social care and attention.
Thirdly, to enhance the overall efficiency, public cultural services should be user-oriented
according to users’ specific needs and requirements. The rapid development of the Chinese