Page 43 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

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

branch libraries within the township (sub-district); and evaluation of and feedback on the needs
of local readers. Township (sub-district) branch libraries are usually culture stations in townships
(sub-districts).
3) Functions of village (community) branch libraries or mobile service outlets: opening for
business during normal operating hours; offering lending services; routine management and
exchange procedures of books and other materials in the branch library or mobile service outlet;
and evaluation of and feedback on the needs of local readers. The village (community) branch
libraries may be the general culture service centers in villages (communities) or other public/
private facilities and infrastructure, which depends on the distribution pattern of local population in
need of library services and the development plan of the facility network.
The sound operation of the county-level central-branch library system requires a specialized
and trained team of service staff. Within the framework of the system, attempts might be made
to reform the traditional three-level human resources management in counties, townships
and villages, by setting up a new mechanism of “recruiting and managing at the county level
and using at the township & village level” which promotes moderately the level for human
resources management and enables the use of library workers to be relatively independent of
their employment relations. This way, the county-level culture authorities would be able to build
up an integrated urban-rural team of library service workers and ensure the effective operation
of the central-branch library system. “Recruiting at the county level” indicates that county-
level culture and human resources authorities should develop training and licensing systems for
library service workers and take charge of relevant examinations and approvals, while “managing
at the county level” indicates that county-level culture authorities should organize centralized
training, assessment and management of library service workers at all levels in the county.
Lastly, “using at the village level” means that township- and village-level libraries have the right
to use the service staff working at township and village levels, but not the right to manage them
because they are employees of county-level culture departments, and the personnel stability at
the township- and village-level libraries are thus ensured.

3 Improving by proper use of relations, favorable conditions and multiple
support channels

There are many challenges in the fields like specialized personnel, reading resources, service
regulation and event innovations for the establishment and full development of county-level
central-branch library system. Positioned at the center of the system, the county-level libraries
should properly manage its relationship with higher, peer and lower-level institutions and make
wise use of both internal and external resources and conditions in order to create an enabling
environment in support of the system’s effective operation.