Page 46 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

XIA Lixin, LI Chenglong & SUN Jingqiong / An exploratory study on the construction of standards 045
and assessment of national reading based on multi-dimensional integration

Service Guidelines (2nd edition), which suggested clearly that “In well-developed urban and
suburban areas a public library should be available within a journey by private vehicle of about
15 minutes” (Koontz & Gubbin, 2010, p. 47).In the same year, the Wisconsin Public Library
Standards (5th edition)set a number of quantitative standards on the basic level of library service,
claiming that “Regardless of population served, the minimum total volumes held is 8,000” (Public
Library Development Team, 2010, p. 41).Besides, the Serving Our Public 3.0: Standards for
Illinois Public Libraries provided applicable core standards that “the library spends a minimum of
12 percent of its operating budget on materials for patrons” (Illinois Library Association, 2014, p.
27).With the principle of “User First” going deeper, customer satisfaction has become an important
part of library quality evaluation. In 1999, the Association of Research Libraries developed the
“LibQUAL+®” in collaboration with Texas A&M University, which was a rigorously tested
①a
web-based survey bundled with training that helped libraries assess and improve library services
(Association of Research Libraries, 2006).After four revisions in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003,
LibQUAL+® has changed into a protocol consisting of 22 core items, which measure user
perceptions of service quality in three dimensions, namely effect of service, information control,
and library as place (Shi & Z. M. Wang, 2009). Subsequently, ARL employed the digital library
assessment “DigiQUAL®”, which included twelve themes of digital library service quality. They
were accessibility/navigability; interoperability; DL as community for users, developers and
reviewers; collection building; role of federations; copyright; resource use; evaluating collections;
and DL sustainability (Kyrillidou, Cook, & Lincoln, 2009).
China also attaches great importance to the development and implementation of evaluation
criteria on various types of public reading facilities. The Public Library Construction Standard
issued in 2008 determined the size of public libraries regarding the population served, which
specified that the total book volumes held by enhanced level library serving more than 1,500,000
population and covering area over 20,000 square meters, is 1,350,000; the total book volumes held
by moderated level library serving 200,000-1,500,000 population and covering area of 4,500-
20,000 square meters, is 240,000-1,350,000; and the total book volumes held by basic level library
serving less than 200,000 population and covering area under 4,500 square meters, is 45,000-
240,000 (Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, 2008). In 2012, the Public Library
Service Standard enriched the service criteria for public libraries, which added the evaluation on
service resources, service efficiency and service feedback. For instance, it sets indicators such
as “computers”, “volumes borrowed per capita”, “promoting activities”, “reader satisfaction
survey”, etc. (Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, 2012). To further improve
public libraries performance and play their important roles in the development of individual
and community’ culture qualities, the Ministry of Culture has implemented the assessment
and gradation of public libraries at or above the county level nationwide since 1994.The fifth

TM
®
①a LibQUAL+ was initially termed as LibQUAL+ . In 2010, the program acquired the trademark in the United States, and
modified the expression accordingly.