Page 26 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

CHEN Chuanfu, FENG Changyang & CHEN Yi / Library development model of normalized 025
transformation toward the comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society

undertakings expense increased year by year. The cultural undertakings expense was 15.803 billion
in 2006, up 4.9% from last year; it was 19.896 billion in 2007, up 25.9% from last year; it was
24.804 billion in 2008, up 24.7% from last year; it was 29.232 billion in 2008, up 17.9% from last
year (Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, 2011). During the 12th Five-Year
period, in 2012, it was 48.01 billion, up 22.3% from last year (Ministry of Culture of the People’s
Republic of China, 2012); in 2013, it was 53.049 billion, up 10.5% from last year (Ministry of
Culture of the People’s Republic of China, 2014); in 2014, it was 58.344 billion, up 10.0% from
last year (Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, 2015). It can be seen that the
investment of cultural undertakings is directly influenced by economic development.
Survey of library building constructions shows that the scales of new-built, extension and rebuilt
is great for our public libraries whose area increased rapidly. In 2009, the total area of Chinese
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public libraries reached 8.5 million m (Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China,
2011). Many libraries have been built, for example, the Shenzhen government invested 770 million
yuan to build new Shenzhen Library in 2006; 600 million Yuan was invested to build the first
class library in Nanjing in 2007; the Hangzhou Public Library with more than 400 million Yuan
of total investment was open in 2008; the Pudong Library with more than 850 million Yuan of
total investment began to provide service since 2010, and Sun Yat-sen Library in the Guangdong
Province opened in the same year.
In recent years, cultural investment priorities have been transferred and new cultural formats
have become a significant area. Data shows that the proportion of the basic expenditure of
provincial public libraries in China has been declining year by year, and the project expenditure
has been increased. The project expenditure include construction expenditure of a series of cultural
projects carried out by national and local government in recent years (Lu, 2011), for example, the
National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project, Chinese Ancient Books Preservation
Plan, regional digital library projects, Digital Library Promotion Project, Minguo Materials
Preservation Plan, etc.
Due to the pressure caused by economic downturn and the slowdown in investment of
construction scale, the normal policy of land use control will inevitably influence library
extension, renovation and construction. The Ministry of Land and Resources made an overall plan
to determine the scale, scope, layout and scheduling of construction land, and control the total
construction land. (Ministry of Land and Resources of the People’s Republic of China, 2014).
During the 13th Five-Year period, the annual average GDP growth rate should be maintained
at more than 6.5% (People’s Daily, 2015). And compared with the expected annual economic
growth of nearly 8% during the 12th Five-Year period counted by the National Bureau of Statistics
(National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, 2015), it is obvious that GDP
during the 13th Five-Year period is estimated to slow-down, which inevitably affects the scale and
speed of state investment in social institutions.