Page 115 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

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

The Public Library Law of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as “the Public
Libraries Law”) officially came into force on 1 January 2018. Article 4 of the law specifies that
“People’s governments at or above the county level should incorporate public librarianship into
national economic and social development plans at the same level…Government investment in
public libraries should be increased. Funds of public libraries should be included in budgets of
the governments at the same level and appropriated in time and in full.” The reason for regulating
investment in librarianship through national legislation is that shortage of funds is a common
problem for public libraries and public cultural institutions; fiscal investment cannot meet
actual needs or there is poor performance of expenditures, which is a worldwide issue. During
the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, state fiscal investment in the cultural undertaking reached
an unprecedentedly high level, and a breakthrough was made in the construction of cultural
infrastructure. The academia began to focus their attention to financial guarantee for the cultural
undertaking, including public librarianship (X.P. Zhou, 1996). Wang Lin (2006), on the basis of
quantitative analysis of coordinated development of public librarianship and national economy,
pointed out that the base for total investment in public libraries remains quite low and there is an
imbalance in the development of public libraries. Wu Hongjun, Feng Shouren, and Xiao Weiping
(2010) pointed out that in 2008, the per capita number of books in the collection of county libraries
nationwide was merely 0.16 copy; the average expenditure of county libraries nationwide (2,444
in total) on the purchase of books was 82,000 RMB yuan; and 31.5% of county libraries did not
have funds for purchasing books at all, which demonstrates a serious shortage of fiscal investment.
Wan Xueqin and Zhang Jing (2011) consider that economic growth has continued to contribute
to fiscal spending of public libraries at a fast and ever-increasing rate; fiscal spending of public
libraries has promoted economic growth, but in an insignificant manner. In January 2015, the
General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council jointly
issued the Opinions on Speeding Up the Construction of Modern Public Cultural Service System
and the National Guidelines for Basic Public Cultural Service 2015-2020. In the overall context
of building the modern public cultural service system, the role of libraries has gained attention
of all walks of life and the focus of the academia has shifted from increasing funds to improving
efficiency. Jin Wugang (2015) carried out research on the county level central-branch library
system. Li Guoxin (2016) put forward the phenomenon of “central depression” that emerged in
the development of public librarianship. Shen Guangliang (2016) carried out analysis of modes of
participation of private capital in the construction of grassroots libraries. Lu Hejian, Wu Fan, and
Kai Yuan (2016) proposed the solution of whole-process supervision of socialized management of
grassroots libraries to address their performance. Hu Tao (2015) carried out research on regional
disparity and spatial distribution of equalized public library service, in terms of resource input,
service output and public benefit. He considered that the level of public library service in China
gradually reduces from eastern areas to western areas. Zhou Di (2017) pointed out that there is a
serious Matthew Effect with respect to the fairness of public libraries, while the Matthew Effect is
not significantly demonstrated in the dimension of efficiency. The government should devote key