Page 118 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

FU Caiwu & YUE Nan / Restrictions on incremental financial investment in the construction of 117
modern public cultural service system: Based on investigations of county public libraries

1.1 Fiscal investment has speeded up fast development of county level libraries

1.1.1 County level libraries have seen a faster pace of development than public libraries
nationwide
The number of county level libraries, their total volume of collections, and their per capita
volume of collections registered higher average annual growth rates than those of public libraries
nationwide from 2001 to 2015. In this period, the number of county level libraries increased from
2,228 to 2,734, registering 506 new libraries and an average annual growth rate of 1.47%, a figure
higher than the average annual growth rate of 1.09% for public libraries nationwide in total. In
2001, each county had 0.78 county-level library on average and the figure increased to 0.96 in
2015. Both the total volume and per capita volume of books from the collection of county-level
libraries doubled, with average annual growth rates of 7.32% and 6.71% respectively, comparing
to the respective rates of 5.10% and 4.54% for the country’s public libraries in total.
In 2015, the central area registered the largest average number of county-level libraries, with
1.2 libraries for each county on average; but the area saw the least number of books per capita,
which registered merely 0.19 copy per capita. In the eastern area, each county had 0.76 library on
average, a figure lower than the average of the county; but the area saw the fastest annual growth
rate, which registered 2.02%. The eastern area also saw the largest number and fastest growth
rate of county-level library collection in terms of both total collection and per capita collection.
County level libraries are still in a developing stage with smaller collections and limited service
capacity. In 2015, the number of county level libraries accounted for 87.1% of the total number of
the country’s public libraries, but the figure for total book collections was only 46.19%. Numbers
of books from the collection of county level libraries in eastern, central and western areas of the
country were respectively 0.38 copy per capita, 0.19 copy per capita and 0.25 copy per capita,
roughly half of the figures for public libraries in total in these areas, which registered 0.80 copy per
capita, 0.37 copy per capita and 0.47 copy per capita (see Table 1 and 2).

1.1.2 Analysis of compatibility between business development and public investment of county
level libraries
First, generally, financial expenditure and business development of county level libraries are closely
associated with each other. From 2001 to 2015, positive correlation existed between total expenditures
and circulation person times and total number of books borrowed, between book purchase costs
and total collection volumes and collection volumes per capita, and between basic expenditures and
number of employees of county level libraries nationwide. Their correlation coefficients were close
to 1 and there was a high degree of similarity with respect to their variation processes .
〇a ①
① Pearson correlation coefficient is adopted to show compatibility (relevance) of business development of county level public
libraries with their total spending, book purchase spending and basic spending. The correlation coefficient is between 0 and 1:
the closer it is to 1, the closer lineal relationship the two variables have, and vice versa. For example, the correlation coefficients
between county level public library expenditures and circulation person times for the country as a whole, the eastern area, the
central area, the western area and the northeast area are respectively 0.99, 0.99, 0.93, 0.95 and 0.77. These figures indicate that
from 2001 to 2015, there was a higher degree of correlation between total spending and total circulation person times, but such
correlation varied among areas; the northeast area has the weakest correlation.