Page 150 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

CHEN Geng & BAI Haohui / Inspection and reflection on the free open policy of public cultural venues in China: Centered on the public libraries 149

Compared with the increase in 2010 before the free admission, there has been a significant increase.
In addition, the functions of public libraries continue to expand after free admission, thus
gradually form a comprehensive and regional public cultural space. Public libraries “have the
function of social sharing space and the role of people’s communication places in promoting
ideological exchange and cultural communication” (X.M. Wang, 2009), which constitutes a
regional public cultural space. According to a survey, although the main purpose of the public
to the library is still to borrow and read books, about 16% and 21% of the public are aiming at
educating children and leisure entertainment. At the same time, the free admission policy has
been widely recognized by the public. In addition, the public satisfaction reached a good level, the
average satisfaction of public libraries has reached 4.07 under the condition of full score is 5.00 .
〇a ①

3 Inspection on the free admission policy of public libraries

3.1 Reflection on the policy

1) Policy planning: The constant amount of subsidy is difficult to meet the increasing demand for
supply and service quantity generated by free admission policy.
In Anderson’s policy process stage theory, policy planning includes the formation of problems,
the formulation of policy plans, the adoption of policy programs (Anderson, 1990). It’s the starting
point for connecting follow-up policy implementation, policy results and policy evaluation, as well
as the receiver for the policy optimization after receiving evaluation feedback.
The free admission policy planning stage is mainly to design the funding subsidy standard.
Through the estimation of the funds required for basic public cultural service projects at
prefecture-level and county-level public cultural institutions across the country, the Ministry of
Finance and the Ministry of Culture have determined the subsidy standard: 500,000 Yuan at the
city level, 200,000 Yuan at the county level, 50,000 Yuan at the township level. The data source of
the estimation is the data of national public cultural venues in 2009, which counted in The Chinese
Cultural Relics Statistical Yearbook (2010). Although the subsidy standard is higher than the
cost of basic cultural services at that time, the subsidy standard has remained at the original level
and has not been dynamically adjusted with the development of the social economy up to now.
The original subsidy standard can neither match the possible or potential increase of the original
measurement standard, nor can it meet the current increase in the cost of free admission work.
Since the implementation of free admission policy, the service content and number of service
people in public libraries have increased significantly. According to The Chinese Cultural Relics
Statistical Yearbook (2011-2017), the indicators of supply and service of public libraries have
grown substantially by 2016. Compared with the first year of free admission (2011), the increase

① Data Source: The “Culture Frontline” survey of National Institute of Cultural Development in Wuhan University in July-August
2016.