Page 103 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

102 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.10, 2018

From the view of the contents of public library charters at both home and abroad, there are
several main parts generally: the first part clarifies the information of basis, nature, purpose and
business scope, the sources of finance, the civil liability ability, superior departments and so
on; the second part focuses on the establishment and operation of the institution, including the
composition, defined duties and responsibilities, the rules of procedure, the way of the member
selection, duties and responsibilities of the board of trustees (supervisors), the selected way, duties
and responsibilities of the librarian and library management; the third part includes the utilization
and management of property, information disclosure, the remaining property termination and
disposal, the charter revision and other information.
Therefore, the common practices should be revising the existing public library management
system combined with the main contents of the “library charter”, in order to make it conform to
the modern governance idea. At the same time, a series of related rules and regulations about the
personnel, finance, business, and Party building should be enacted. And these policies should reflect
the principle of Party managing Cadres and Party committees supervision, clarify the main duties and
responsibilities of the decision-maker, the management, the supervisor, and the Party organization,
continue to push the development of institutionalization for public library board of trustees system.
First, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the board of trustees as the decision-maker.
As the decision-making agency of public libraries, the board of trustees makes decisions on the
development strategy, business management and other related issues. The board of trustees is
responsible to the government superior department and submits the report periodically. There
are usually nine to fifteen members in the board of trustees with the majority of external ones,
including one president and one vice president. The term of all the trustees is three to five years,
and no more than two consecutive terms. The succession could replace all the trustees or have
different term commencing adopted from the foreign experiences. The government superior
department should authorize the decision-making rights to the board of trustees. Based on the
pilots and the spirit of the central documents, the board of trustees should follow the list of
responsibilities and authorities strictly (see table 4), and use the power fully without exceeding the
authority.
During the prior period of the pilots, the decision-maker didn’t fulfill the functions mentioned
above. Especially, the board of trustees had failed to perform its decision-making role in some
aspects, such as “deliberating, nominating and appointing the librarian jointly with the government
superior department”, and “deliberating and determining the library annual major financial matters,
including financial budget and final accounting, identifying the use of funds”.
Second, clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the public library management. The
management is composed of the principal administrator and other major managers, including
the librarian, deputy librarian and so on. The management is the executive agency of the board
of trustees in the librarian accountability system, and the librarian is in charge of the day-to-
day business, financial assets and personnel of the libraries. On the basis of the pilot practices, the