Page 73 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

QIU Guanhua / The construction of central and branch libraries in China since the 21st century 073

〇a ①
on a population of 1.27627 billion in 2001, per capita GDP and fiscal revenue was RMB 7,517
and RMB 1,284 yuan respectively. This demonstrates the accomplishment of the strategic aim
proposed by Deng Xiaoping, which is “to establish a moderately prosperous society in China by
quadrupling the per capita GDP up to USD 800 by the end of the 20th century” .
〇b ②
The sustainable development of economy and society requires common progress of the people
and the society, as well as social stability, harmony, fairness and justice. To achieve these, the
fundamental basis lies in a dynamic equilibrium between the supply and demand of public cultural
services, as well as the equitable and specialized provision of these services in quantity or quality.
Therefore, the Chinese government and Communist Party of China (CPC) have promulgated
a series of policies and regulations to establish a public cultural service system, including
public libraries, and proposed that such a system should be “comprehensive, universally equal,
standardized and performance-enhancing”, so as to ensure “the fundamental cultural rights of the
people”.
These policies and regulations offer opportunities for the development and prosperity of public
librarianship. Highly coordinated with the equal, free and indiscriminate service concept of public
library, as well as the professional ideals of librarians, such policies and regulations thus serve as
impetuses to the development of the central and branch libraries system in China.
The central and branch libraries system is a relatively mature organization form and service
model of modern public libraries service. However, such a system faces challenges in the local
context, because under the Chinese administrative institution, governments at all levels, from
provincial to township, usually should build libraries under their supervision. Over a decade of
exploration and research covers a range of issues, which reveals that all the challenges could be
summarized as three major factors, namely, governing structure (the government takes the lead)
service provider and administration unit. These three factors decide the pattern in building the
central and branch libraries, but they cannot be fully handled by the library profession alone.
Despite difficulties in building the central and branch libraries system in China, many innovative
approaches were introduced and developed into new models that have promoted Chinese
librarianship in this period. With their professional dedication, unswerving efforts and innovation
initiation, Chinese librarians have achieved remarkable progress in building the central and branch
libraries system in China’s public librarianship.
From the launch of Shanghai Central Library’s membership card that offers BARA service
in December 2000, to the promulgation of Guidance on Promoting the County Central-branch
Cultural Center System and Central-branch Library System Development (hereafter referred to
as the Guidance) (2016), the library and information sector has contributed to the development
of Chinese culture in the process of building central-branch libraries system. Through innovation,

① data source: website of National Bureau of Statistics of China, http://data.stats.gov.cn/search.htm?s=2001年人口, retrieval date:
2015-3-5
② This statement was made when meeting the Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira on December 6th, 1979.