Page 48 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

XIA Lixin, LI Chenglong & SUN Jingqiong / An exploratory study on the construction of standards 047
and assessment of national reading based on multi-dimensional integration

percentage” and “bookstores coverage”, to examine the construction and layout of commercial
reading facilities (Xia, C. L. Li, & J. Q. Sun, 2015).
It is not enough to simply evaluate the layout of book kiosks, especially when the physical
bookstores are greatly influenced by e-commerce. Evaluation on business model and featured
services becomes particularly important. Identifying the bottleneck and potential of commercial
reading facilities by assessment, is helpful to guide future development, and fully play their roles
in the national reading.

1.2.2 The assessment of publicity and promotion
Publicity and promotion are to reinforce reading intentions, promote the use of different types of
reading facilities, and guide citizens to develop good reading habits. Reading programs are the
main ways for publicity and promotion by now.
The international library community pays high attention to the assessment of reading programs.
IFLA (2012) published the Guidelines for Library-Based Literacy Programs, which presented the
areas for assessment to tell if the programs are successful. It referred to “the number of participants
enrolled, how they evaluated the program, how the program benefited the community, the longer-
term benefit to the individuals, and the structure of the program”. The planning guide for “One city,
One book” compiled by ALA also showed that evaluation was in the thick of the program, which
determined the impact, effectiveness and scope of the initiative(American Library Association,
2003). The guide provided two different evaluation forms, one from the Chicago Public Library
and one from Greensboro Public Library. The former posed questions like how to hear about, why
and how to participate in the initiative, while the latter asked for detailed information, including the
agreement, discussion and review on the book, recommendation for another book, and comments
on the program. As the reading programs providers are increasingly diversified, the assessment
is no longer limited to the library community. The Premier League Reading Stars delivered by
the National Literacy Trust, evaluates the program by questionnaires and interviews every year,
concerning the changes before and after the program. According to the report in 2014 (NLT, 2014),
there were more pupils taking part in the program and more challenges completed, which raised
children’s reading levels, helped them enjoy reading, inspired them to read more, increased their
library use, equipped them to choose books, and supported their writing and speaking skills. The
book-gifting program “Booked up” launched by Book trust, an independent charity, examines a
range of factors such as frequency and content of reading, motivation and confidence in reading,
attitude towards reading, and social class and ethnicity (Zhao, Guo, & Yang, 2013).
The evaluation on the effects of reading programs is still few. Using delphi method and Analytic
Hierarchy Process (AHP), S. F. Wang,Y. Q. Sun, and B. Wang (2013) attempted to establish
an integrated evaluation criteria for children’s reading promotion, which included library, user
perception and social impact. However, it was still in the theory research stage, and not put into
practice.