Page 51 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 42

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

Organization Dimension
Production
Transfer Macro level
Usage Meso level
Integration Micro level
User Dimension

OccupationAge Ability
Resource Dimension
Figure 1. The structure of the national reading assessment standard by multi-dimensional integration.

2.1 Organization dimension

National reading is a strategic, global and proactive enterprise, which needs coordination across
sectors, industries and regions, involving different responsible bodies. The national reading
assessment can be classified into three categories according to the scale and scope: 1) Macro
assessment, is to reveal the macro condition and development trends of national reading system
construction, and provide evidence for management and decision-making; 2) Micro assessment,
refers to the evaluation of the basic units in national reading system construction, i.e. the
primary units, such as the evaluation of a library, a village library and a bookstore; 3) Meso
evaluation falls between the two, which is mainly the national reading assessment in a region or
a sector.
The multilevel evaluation of national reading should conform to the government management
system in China(see Figure 2).At the macro level, the national steering committee of national
reading is responsible for the comprehensive evaluation of national reading in the nationwide,
like using “reading index” and other indicators to reflect the status of the whole nation. At the
meso level, different sectors and regions should set up assessment standards in accordance
with the national overall guiding framework to evaluate national reading within the scope of
their functions and duties. For instance, the Ministry of Culture evaluates the public cultural
service system construction by the public cultural service system assessment standard, and
provinces, cities and counties evaluate the national reading within the region on the basis of
local assessment standards. At the micro level, various units ought to develop evaluation criteria
based on the national overall guiding framework and sectoral/industrial/regional assessment
standards, such as the national reading evaluation criteria of public libraries, academic libraries,
etc.