Page 35 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

034 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 8, 2016

as well. Legalization is a system guarantee for the library to play its due role in comprehensive
building of a moderately prosperous society.
(1) Legalization of library establishment. Through construction of law system, the position of
library is further established in social construction, which is beneficial to incorporate development
of library into local national economy and social developing plan, and also beneficial to ensure
the continued investment for library. Library buildings, library construction, opening time and
coverage all need legislation guarantee. The determination of the area of the public library in the
United States mainly considers the factors such as the service population, the collection resources,
the number of reading seats and the proportion of non-business function areas (Zhang, Liu, Zhang,
& Wu, 2009).
(2) Proper legislation will regulate libraries by standardizing their activities. Formulation and
perfection of library service standards, certification and rating on library service quality benefit
library service quality improvement, library management perfection, and library development
promotion, and they are the objective requirements of building a moderately prosperous society in
all respects. In terms of library construction, at present, our country has introduced some industry
standards, they have more specific requirements for libraries at all levels in the construction area,
the amount of books, reading seats, equipment, layout; in terms of resource organization, we need
to specify the taxonomy used to classify traditional literature information resources, the way digital
libraries organize and utilize of information resources; in terms of library services, we need to
clarify what services the library can offer, what cannot. Public Library Services Standards has been
introduced in China, which refers to meet the special needs of the disabled, children, the elderly,
migrant workers, rural areas and remote area public, but no specific instructions on how to meet
their special needs; in terms of human resource management, Public Library Services Standards
has clear requirements for the number of personnel, professional structure, academic qualifications
and so on. Library system of our country has a relatively perfect evaluation index system, for
example, in 2013, the Ministry of Culture carried out the assessment and grading of county and
above public libraries for the fifth time. But the assessment by the third party is still relatively less,
and is not standardized, such assessment methods as, standardized self-assessment, assessed by
third party, would be more adopted.
(3) Using law to protect the development of library. In 1982, the Ministry of Culture issued the
Provincial (autonomous regions and municipalities) Library Work Regulations, in 1985, Guizhou
Province promulgated Guizhou Province County Libraries Work Regulations. Later, Shanghai,
Shenzhen and other 14 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and large cities have
introduced local library regulations and rules. Since 2013, our country has promulgated four new
local library laws and regulations. Through legislation, we could improve library management
system, guarantee collection resources, guarantee reader services, protect readers’ rights and
readers’ acceptance of supervision, safeguard the people’s basic cultural rights and interests, and
promote library development. On December 9, 2015, People’s Republic of China Public Library