Page 44 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

044 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.9, 2017

the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan.
After the survey of the development of grassroots public libraries conducted by the public
library alliance of Hunan Province, Hubei Province, Jiangxi Province and Anhui Province
completed, the research team of the Peking University and the Hunan Library analyzed the
large sample data and concluded that at least 13 indicators of public libraries in Central region
has fallen to national minimum level since the “12th Five-Year Plan”. Those indicators include: the
financial allocations of public libraries, the proportion of financial allocations in total expenditure,
the per capita public library funding, the per capita funding for purchasing books, the per capita
reserves of resources, the per capita annual increment of reserves, the average building area of
public libraries per ten thousand persons, the average seats of public libraries per ten thousand
persons, the average computer terminals of public libraries per ten thousand persons, the ration of
librarians to the service population, the per capita number of annul library visiting, the per capita
number of activity participation. Furthermore, the number of counties that do not have public
libraries in the Central region is the highest in China.

1.6 The phenomenon of “Central lowland” is prevalent

In 2015, the Ministry of Culture carried out the Fourth Evaluation of Chinese Culture Centers.
At the beginning of 2016, commissioned by the China Culture Association, the Modern Public
Culture Research Center of the Peking University analyzed the National Evaluation and Grading
System which contained 8 categories of 105 indicators, more than 350,000 statistics. The statistical
analysis showed that by the end of 2014 Central China had been at the bottom of the rankings
of many main indicators reflecting culture centers’ development, such as financial allocation of
culture centers, the subsidy funding of free opening, the per capita culture center funding, the
total building area of culture centers, the number of annul service population, the ability of culture
centers’ attracting social capital . Thus, the phenomenon of Central lowland is not unique in the
〇a ①
field of public libraries. Public libraries and culture centers are two major forces in Chinese public
cultural services, so it could be concluded that Central lowland is prevalent in the field of public
culture. It should be noted that the problem of unbalanced public cultural development was pointed
out at the very beginning of the China Culture and Relic Almanac (2015) edited by the Ministry
of Culture of the People’s Republic of China (2015). It made the judgment that public cultural
services in the East were the best, the West took the second place and the Central region was the
last. It is because of the prevalence of the Central lowland phenomenon in the field of public
culture that we should pay more attention. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the primary
task of constructing a modern public cultural service system is to promote equalization through
standardization. Consequently, it is the focus of realizing balanced development of public culture

① The analysis report of The Fourth Evaluation of Chinese Culture Center (2016). The Modern Public Culture Research Center of
Peking University, The Public Culture Research of The Ministry of Culture (Peking University) published.