Page 19 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

018 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.12, 2020

the reform of the corporate governance structure.
As an important component of furthering the reform, the aim of the reform is to boost the
development of public welfare and to meet the growing demands for public service. In accord
with the function-based reform of public institutions, public libraries are considered as public
service. The reform reinforces the public property of public libraries, and clarifies the financial
allocation for public libraries, which guarantees funding, but problems still exist. For one thing,
funding cannot be allocated in full or the quota of allocation is not enough. For another thing, as
an institution providing public services, it is difficult to encourage the staff to work harder through
income adjustment. It is one of challenges for us to motivate internal vitality in the library.
According to the deployment of seven ministries including the former Ministry of Culture,
the reform of corporate governance structure has been carried out in recent years, which is a
key reform in the public cultural field. Now tens of hundreds of municipal public libraries have
established councils. As the only pilot institution at the nation level, the NLC founded the first
council in early 2019 after sufficient survey and preparation. Rules of procedures and the NLC
regulations were discussed and formulated. However, it is only the preliminary task to found
the council. Considering the overall operation, the valid function of councils in management
and decision making process is still limited. The authority-responsibility relationship among the
council, the management, the Party and the workers’ congress needs to be straightened out. We
need to make progress in practice in giving full play to the council scientifically and effectively,
establishing and improving the evaluation system of building, managing and supervising of public
libraries by different parties, and enhancing the management and service efficiency of libraries.
Apart from the above six prominent problems, there are still some more for us to give thoughts.
For example, the library is undergoing dramatic changes in the wave of new technological
innovations. Libraries around the world are searching for ways to transformation and creative
development. What strategies should we take when new developmental mode is not yet fully
developed and objectives as well as pathways are undefined? How could we judge the present
development stage of the library? What are characteristics of the stage? How could we grasp the
occasion of the present time to develop since integration has become one of the main characteristics
of the Internet era? Who should we integrate with? What should we integrate in? And how should
we integrate? The fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee passed the Decision
of the CPC Central Committee on Some Major Issues Concerning Maintaining and Improving
the System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Modernizing the National Governance
System and Capabilities, which encouraged the social forces to participate in the construction of
public cultural service system. How should we take advantage of social forces in the development
of librarianship? How should we keep our leading and principle role when cooperating with social
forces? How should we enhance the overall efficiency in the construction of public cultural service
system? How should the inefficiency of grass-root libraries be improved? All of these questions
need to be answered, which requires thoughts, research and discussions of all the librarians.