Page 100 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

FENG Jia & WANG Shanshan / The corporate governance pilots of public libraries in China 099

2.4 Insufficient system of selecting and training and limited support for the decisionmaking
power

The board of trustees is the core of the corporate governance. The composition of trustees is
the key to the establishment of the board of trustees and related to the effective governance of
public libraries directly. The trustees in the current pilots cover the ex-officio member and the
government governors. And the government trustees are mostly generated through appointment
according to the Opinions on the Establishment and Improvement of the Corporate Governance
Structure of Public Institutions. However, it should be noted that the particularities of government,
including limited breakthrough for the social roles, the time and energy for governance practicing,
which prohibits the independent legal status of public libraries and the decision-making function
of the board of trustees to some extent. In addition, the public library board of trustees system
is immature and quite a few social trustees have inadequate comprehensive understanding of
public libraries and public cultural services, and regular meetings couldn’t effectively compensate
those shortcomings. Taking Fengnan District Library in Tangshan City as an example, except
attending the meetings, the first round trustees with fixed invitation did not actively participate in
the library’s governance, pay little attention to the librarianship, did not have the strong sense of
mission and obligation, could not put forward their own views and opinions on major events, and
failed to provide effective support for the scientific and professional decisions. Therefore, building
and perfecting the system of trustees’ selecting and training is a burning issue.

3 Key tasks on perfecting the corporate governance of public libraries

Since entering the new century, especially after the CCP and State Council (2005) Suggestions
Concerning Deepening Cultural System Reform has been issued, CCP and State Council issued a
series of documents related to modern public cultural governance, including the Implementation
Plan of Deepening the Corporate Governance Structure of Public Cultural Institutions (2017),
which has pointed out the direction for the top design and general plan on the corporate governance
of public libraries. These documents have made clear provisions and specific requirements
for the public library board of trustees on the separation of rowing and steering, governance
and administration, highlighting the corporate status, perfecting the corporate governance,
emphasizing management mechanism and strengthening Party’s leadership. The Leading Group
for Comprehensive Deepening of Reform has required that we should grasp the reform direction,
strengthen overall coordination, apprehend the pilots requirements, organize and implement
scientifically, and summarize and promote timely, etc. According to the issues confronted by the
pilots, further development of the public library board of trustees system in China should focus on
the following work.