Page 96 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

FENG Jia & WANG Shanshan / The corporate governance pilots of public libraries in China 095

strengthening the independent legal status, clarifying the rights and responsibilities between the
government and the public institutions, promoting scientific and democratic decision-making and
striving for more supports. Setting up of the board of trustees was the mark of these pilots, which
provides some experience. Firstly, Chongqing Library, as the representative of most pilots, has
endowed the board of trustees with discussing and decision-making, which clarifies the rights
and responsibilities among the government, the board of trustees and the library management,
and gives the board of trustees and the management of the library much more business decision
rights without changing the personnel and the public financial system. Secondly, on the basis of
the former governance type, Futian District Library in Shenzhen City has endowed the board of
trustees with decision-making and supervision and put supervision function into effect, which
emphasizes the supervision function of the board of trustees by recruiting more extensive trustees.
In addition, it is very impressive that Wenzhou Library votes Li Guosheng, the vice chairman
of Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce, to be the president of the board of trustees, and sets up
the Development Fund with 4 million yuan, which has made full use of all the trustees’ social
influence and resources, and greatly promoted the board of trustees to perform the social fund-
raising function.

1.2 Laying the groundwork for policies

The governments in pilot areas have combined practical exploration with system construction,
promoted the separation of rowing and steering, governance and administration, and issued
the library charter, the charter of the board of trustees and so on, which have improved the
scientific and standardized level of pilots, and boosted the development vitality and internal
growth momentum of the public libraries. The pilots have provided the path for the Ministry of
Culture to implement the central committee’s reform tasks, and provided practice cases and first-
hand information for the central government to formulate and issue the relevant policies, especially
for the Implementation Plan on Deepening the Reform of the Corporate Governance Structure of
Public Cultural Institutions.

1.3 Putting the spillovers effect to practice

During the process of the pilot project, the Ministry of Culture has organized several promotion
meetings, symposiums and on-site experience exchange meetings. In addition, the government
has engaged in extensive outreach efforts through the news media to provide the other departments
of the cultural system and all aspects of society much more insights in the reform. After the
Implementation Plan on Deepening the Reform of the Corporate Governance Structure of Public
Cultural Institutions was issued, all pilots further improved the system of working measures
according to the central requirements, played a leading role model, and became the forerunner of