Page 28 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

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LI Guoxin / The historical contributions of the Public Library Law of the People’s Republic of China 027

and communication of public cultural service resources in the rural and urban communities. In
December 2016, five departments of the State Council including the Ministry of Culture released
the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the County Central-Branch Cultural Center System and
Central-Branch Library System Development which sets new tasks for the central-branch system
development in public libraries in the new age (Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Press,
Publication, Radio, Film and Television, General Administration of Sport, National Development
and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, 2016). It also
signifies that the central-branch system development has extended from libraries to cultural
centers.
The key of the central-branch system is to integrate the decentralized and independent libraries
into an organizational system, which in essence are reforms in managerial and operational systems.
The PLL summarizes the successful experience obtained from the long-term practices and the
norms in the previous policies to construct a central-branch system of public libraries with Chinese
characteristics (Article 31). The central-branch system involves five main points. Firstly, the basic
region unit of the central-branch system is the county level which is selected in consideration of
regional characteristics, administrative and financial systems and city and countryside integration,
and so on. Secondly, the main body of the central-branch system development is the government at
the county level. It specifies that the development should be an act of the government instead of a
professional one. It indicates that the central-branch system is one of the characteristics of system
reforms. Thirdly, county libraries as the central library should strengthen professional guidance
for branch libraries and grass-root service stations. Fourthly, cultural centers in towns and reading
rooms in villages are branch libraries and grass-root service stations of the central-branch system.
Branch libraries and grass-root service stations are not restricted to cultural centers, reading rooms,
and qualified internet service stations in the cultural system. Reading rooms and cultural centers
in schools, scientific research institutions and companies are also encouraged to voluntarily join to
be branch libraries and grass-root service stations. The provision that cultural centers in towns and
reading rooms in villages are branch libraries and grass-root service stations makes a breakthrough
in the administrative arrangement of branch libraries and grass-root service stations. Lastly, in
accordance with organizational system reforms, the public library central-branch system should
improve digitalization, Internet services, and delivery of resources and services to display the
characteristics of the era. The PLL makes it the legal responsibility for the county government to
establish the central-branch system with local characteristics, which becomes the legalized plan for
the public library central-branch system.

5.2 Setting up and perfect the corporate governance structure

Setting up and perfecting the corporate governance structure in public libraries, museums, cultural
centers and museums of science and technology is the key task of deepening the culture system