Page 153 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

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

The horizontal difference in the scale of the public libraries is expressed between inter-region
and intra-region. With regard to the inter-region, the scale index of public libraries in the eastern,
central, western regions showed a decreasing trend, and the eastern region was significantly
higher than the central and western regions. According to The Chinese Cultural Relics Statistical
Yearbook (2017), the average actual construction area of the venues in the eastern region is about
1.73 times that of the central region and 2.60 times of the western region; the average number
of staff is 1.46 times that of the central region and 1.94 times of the western region; the average
number of circulation, borrowings, events, participants is higher than the sum of the indicators
in the central and western regions (see Table 2). Therefore, in terms of the expenditure of free
admission, venues in eastern region inevitably have more expenses than the central and western
regions. However, in the current single “administrative level” subsidy standard design, regional
differences have not been considered, resulting in that funds cannot match the actual work needs of
venues in different regions.

Table 2. Comparison of the scale of public libraries in the eastern, central and western regions in 2016.
Average
Average actual Average circulation Average
participants
Average
Regions construction area practitioners (10,000 person- borrowings Average events (10,000 person-
(m ) 2 times) (10,000 copies) (times) times)
East 72.04 2,525 4,399.56 1,555.77 7,579.67 400.47
Central 41.62 1,734 1,471.70 645.75 3,616.90 187.42
West 27.66 1,301 943.83 366.17 2,756.75 132.52
Note: The number of events here refers to the total number of lectures, exhibitions, and training courses.

As for the intra-region, public libraries also have obvious problems that scales, service levels
and expenditure costs have differences. Taking Anhui Province of the central region as an
example, in 2015, the “first-level library” Fengyang County Library in Chuzhou City actually
used construction area of 7,410㎡, its total collection was 145,000 volumes, total circulation was
140,000 person-times, the number of borrowing books was 180,000 volumes, the number of events
was 35 times, benefiting 12,400 person-times. While the “three-level library” Shou County Library
in Huainan City actually used construction area of 800㎡, its total collection was 77,000 volumes,
total circulation was 54,000 person-times, the number of borrowing books was 30,000 volumes,
the number of events was 4 times, benefiting 190 person-times . There are obvious differences
〇a ①
in scale, service supply and number of benefited people between the two libraries, but under the
concept of “balancing fairness” in the free admission policy, they both obtained the free admission
subsidy of 200,000 Yuan, which is not “adapt to specific conditions”.
4) Policy evaluation: The lack of supervision and evaluation mechanism leads to insufficient
incentives and restraints for free admission policy.

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