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

4.1 Facilities building

Facilities are fundamental to services and the network of facilities is the bedrock of the service
system. The PLL prescribes that governments at or above the county level should establish the
public library (Article 14). The word “should” in law means “must”. The provision is similar
to international regulations: The government must establish public libraries. What are the
conditions of establishing public libraries? The PLL stipulates four main conditions: population,
population distribution, conditions of environment and transportation (Article 13). Based on the
people and demands oriented idea, the PLL aims to create a good environment for the public
to access libraries and make public libraries play their role. It is targeted at the phenomenon of
building public libraries away from people-intensive places or in area with harsh environment
or poor transportation. How to build public libraries is another problem. The PLL prescribes that
government at or above the county level should reasonably determine the number, size, structure
and distribution of public libraries according to local conditions (Article 13). The number addresses
the number of libraries. One public library for a level of government or a city is not enough for the
public and unable to achieve balanced development. The size addresses how big or small. It is not
that the bigger the better or the smaller the better. The size should fit population, resources reserve
and future development. The structure addresses the matching of sizes, types and so on, such as
the matching of small, medium as well as large sizes, that of fixed buildings, mobile and self-
service facilities in forms, and that of comprehensive library and libraries with special themes. The
distribution addresses where to build libraries. The site selection should be based on population
and the network of facilities should be able to cover all the population. The reasonable number,
size, structure and distribution inevitably demand the combination of fixed buildings, mobile and
self-service facilities to form a convenient public library network that covers the urban and rural
areas. It is one of the highlights of the PLL to classify mobile and self-service facilities as facility
types of the public library, which changes the traditional concept of facilities as buildings. It
demonstrates that the understanding of facilities keeps abreast of the times and that the law affirms
results of practice and guides the developmental trends.

4.2 Legal conditions

Public libraries are responsible for ensuring citizens’ basic reading demands and carrying out
social education. Therefore, basic requirements should be met to fulfill their functions. The Public
Library Service: IFLA/UNESCO Guidelines for Development (2001) proposed that the collection
of public libraries should between 1.5 to 2.5 books per capita. It also introduced the concept of
annual acquisition rate. Libraries serving a population of 100, 000 should hold 200,000 volumes
as median book stock and annual acquisition rate of 20,000 volumes (Gill, 2001). In the early
1990s the Library Association of Japan published a standard of building, resources and personnel