Page 64 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

An CHANG / The unity of freedom and equality in library rights system 063

areas is not only related to the local economic development but also the policies.
Second, compared with freedom, the realization of equality is more realistic and more complex.
Just as Cicero said: “Nothing is better than freedom, if everyone is not equal, there was probably
no freedom, however how can everyone be equal in freedom?” (Rousseau, 1980, p.69) The right
to freedom already exists as long as it is confirmed by system and the exertion of freedom right
cannot be intervened by the nation or individuals. But except for the state institutions affirming,
the realization of equality right also needs implementation of more specific policy and the help of
powerful state machine. Everyone loves freedom. However, not everyone loves equality. There
exists the same problem in the library rights system, and the equality will be reckoned as a problem
that cannot be neglected in an era when freedom can get basic guarantee.
Third, human beings are both a kind of natural existence and a kind of social existence. The
human’s natural attributes and personality determine the original state of freedom and equality,
given the initial conditions of the individual competition. However, human’s social attribute
determines human’s social existence. Everyone lives in a society where we have relationships with
others, so we need more collaboration for maintaining the stable development of society except
for the competition. The public character is not only the basis of society, but also the important
attribute of equality. Although human beings have their natural attributes, the fundamental
properties are still the social attributes. As an institutional arrangement, libraries inevitably aim
to realize the human’s equality in a reasonable way. Only with the support of equality, can library
freedom truly reflect the social justice and achieve the library’s goal and value.
Therefore, within the library rights system, the foundation for the unity of freedom and equality
is a system justice itself, which aims to dynamically dealing with the relationship between
freedom and equality so that they are improved harmoniously. For libraries, the assignments of
social resources of education should be keenly regarded. By paying attention to the library rights
of vulnerable members of the society and real situations about library resources and facilities in
remote areas, the equality of public education and the redistribution of educational resources will
be realized with the financial resources and policy assistances by the government.

3 Marching to the dynamic balance of the library rights system

Different themes and missions are raised. Freedom and equality are created by law of nature,
and regarded as the core of mechanism after the Age of Enlightenment and the Revolution of
Bourgeoisie. The conflicts between freedom and equality inevitably require the carefully handling
of the relation between them to be the premise for the justice. Libraries are essential all through the
realization of social justice. As a justice of system, the freedom and equality lying in the structure
of library rights are naturally proposed, as the base of the union of them. The criteria whether the
institution is just or not is the balance of these two values. Hence how to deal with freedom and
equality becomes the inevitable issue for the building of library institutions.