Page 39 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

038 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

extent the reading needs of the local residents, this way of distributing books makes it impossible
to share books among different Farmers’ Reading Rooms within one same county or province, as
all of them offer the same collection of reading resources.
It is therefore recommended that county-level libraries take charge of the funds earmarked by the
central government and the supporting funds by the local governments in a coordinated way, use
these funds to purchase resources, distribute the resources to the Farmers’ Reading Rooms within
the county and then make the resources circulate among these Rooms on a regular basis (W. G.
Jin, 2014). Supposing there are 6 neighboring Farmers’ Reading Rooms in one township, and they
circulate about 200 books every two months, then each Farmers’ Reading Room actually has a
replenishment of 1 200 books per year with the same total number of books and investment. In this
way books and funds are used to the maximum extent.
(2) The recommended circulating mechanism can increase the actual number of books available
for rural users
The long-standing imbalanced development between rural and urban areas leads to the fact
that resources of good quality tend to cluster in urban libraries while rural areas are left with
resources of low quantity and poor quality. Sound circulating mechanism can help with the top-
down distribution of resources of good quality and increase the quantity and enrich the variety of
resources at primary libraries.
The Notice on thoroughly promoting book rotation among public libraries in Chengdu issued by
the government of Chengdu, Sichuan Province puts forward the central-branch library system with
a circulating mechanism at county level (Bureau of Culture of Chengdu City, 2011). The general
principle features “macro regulation and control at municipal level, organization at county level,
rotation at township level and management at village level”. As the central library, a county-level
library is in charge of organizing quarterly circulating of books among culture stations at township/
sub-district levels (no less than 5 000 books per rotation). Township (sub-district) general culture
stations are responsible for organizing monthly book-circulation among village (community)
culture rooms (no less than 500 books per rotation). In this way, public book resources can be
allocated rationally and used effectively. The system of “Mobile Culture Outlet” practiced in
Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, involves the municipal library and facilities owned by various
institutions and organizations. Set up in remote areas or areas where people have limited access to
library resources, mobile outlets offer reading services for the general public. Their resources are
supplied and replenished by the municipal library (“Management notice on the outside circulation
station of Quzhou Library”, 2015).
(3) Resources within a specified region are recommended to be shared and integrated across
different institutions and organizations
Institutional barriers should be broken down to allow cooperation and resource sharing
between libraries and institutions and organizations whose abundant resources should be
accessed by the surrounding residents. In Changshu, Jiangsu province, in cooperation with the