Page 79 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

QIU Guanhua / The construction of central and branch libraries in China since the 21st century 079

the advantages manifested by central-branch library that made Jiaxing’s Municipal Government
decides to lead the construction of central-branch library, which ensured the stable development of
central-branch library in Jiaxing.
Secondly, the objective laws of central-branch library were discovered gradually with the help
of practical exploration and theoretical study. Following these laws was the essential requirement
for achieving high economic efficiency and sustainable development of central-branch library.
Therefore, some regions conducted professional reform professionalization on the branch
libraries which deviated from the laws and were inefficient. For example, the libraries in Bao’an
District and Nanshan District of Shenzhen carried out investigation and study on the loose and
inefficient community libraries and proposed professional reform plan to their respective District
Governments. That was to re-plan the layout of branch libraries and transform the loose community
libraries into branch libraries directly under the central library. Bao’an District received policy
and financial support from local government from 2007 and Nanshan District from 2008. They
each finished the transformation of 7 and 8 branch libraries. The branch libraries directly under the
central library introduced centralized management of the human, financial and material resources.
The efficiency was greatly improved after the transformation.
Thirdly, as the supplement of branch libraries in physical form, mobile library, 24 hours self-
service library and 24 hours block self-service book borrowing and returning machine became
parts of the planned sites of central-branch library. In the second stage of building “Library City”,
Shenzhen City Library developed 24 hours self-service book machine, which aroused great
attention. And many places in Shenzhen began to purchase bookmobiles and set stops in the remote
areas far away from library service, so as to supplement the scarcity of branch libraries there.
As a whole, the central-branch library expanded steadily in scale and got obvious benefits.
At the same time, some regions failed to get around the institutional obstacles effectively in the
process of designing the constructive plan for central-branch library. They overemphasized the
practical situations but ignored the laws of central-branch library itself, resulting in the loopholes
and problems in the construction plan and project. On the condition of the absence of institutional
constraints, lack of government leading and multiple service provider and management units, it
became hard for central library to implement centralized management over branch ones. “Direction”
was replaced by professional “guidance”, so the branch library was unable to offer professional
services which basically meet the service standards of central-branch library. What’s worse, some
even could not open to the public normally. Some libraries feel daunting at the hardships of central-
branch library construction caused by the institutional obstacles. They refused to construct central-
branch library on the grounds of underdeveloped local economy. In this way, they could avoid the
embarrassment of fine start and poor finish resulting from uncertain factors, such as the lack of
the sustainable support from different resources. On the contrary, there were great progresses in
studies, which solved many theoretical problems and revealed objective laws of the construction
of central-branch library. These rich research achievements not only guided the construction and