Page 75 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

QIU Guanhua / The construction of central and branch libraries in China since the 21st century 075

reader, promotes resource sharing and improves service performance.
Since the start of the 21st century, the central and branch libraries system has been adopted
by some domestic libraries. The building of the service system, including central and branch
libraries, service network, library alliance and mobile libraries, was launched in many places,
such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen (including several districts under its
jurisdiction), Dongguan, Foshan, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Harbin, Xiamen, etc. As the concept
of central and branch libraries is still not clear at this stage, all the service outlets were regarded as
so-called “branch libraries”.
For the practitioners exploring the construction of central and branch library at this stage,
courage was greatly needed as well as good luck and their intelligence and perseverance was also
trialed without government domination, lack of institutional support, where resource was in deficit
and misunderstanding prevailed. The so-called “good luck” refers to coming across an enlightened
superior or accidental events for the benefits of successful branch setup in the process of planning,
lobbying and promotion for central and branch library.
For example, in 2003, the government officials of Chancheng District, Foshan City, decided to
adopt the suggestion of setting up central and branch library with the concentrated planning by the
government. The “Chancheng Mode” was built in this situation, which is a full sense of central and
branch library system, the only one at that time and still rare even for now. The characteristics of
the Chancheng Mode including: the government-dominated, singular construction subject, uniform
management unit system of general and branch library; except for the funds for branches which
were provided by each street, all the other expenditures are invested by the district government；
The central and branch libraries were managed and services were provided altogether by
Chancheng Library as a whole (Qiu, L.Z. Yu, & Xu, 2008).
The general and branch library system in Jiaxing was dominated by the government as the mayor
found the advantages of branches during his inspection of cultural work. The mobile library in
Guangdong province was a special project when the provincial government adopted the proposal of
a member of the Provincial CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference). Through
half a year’s lobbying and communication with different sectors of the society, the general and
branch library system in Suzhou was set up thanks to a cooperation opportunity came by chance as
new library of Canglang Children’s Hall was open and professional service was in demand. It’s not
hard to find out that it is both inevitable and accidental to set up central and branch library system
at this stage. The inevitability lies in that the library practitioner in the regions where central and
branch library system was launched had realized and approved the service concept as well as
had the confidence, determination and preparation to expand service, provide convenience to the
readers and develop the career. The accidental part refers to the restrains by institution including
the lack of understanding of the internal rule of central and branch library system, making the
success and the mode of setup affected by varied factors.
To summarize the features of central-branch libraries system in the first stage, it is evident that