Page 70 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

CHEN Geng & HU Yachun / The attribution analysis of low participation in public reading 069
among rural residents: A survey from 77 administrative villages and rural libraries in Hubei Province

and deeply, we conducted a field survey of rural residents in farmers’ reading rooms and their
surrounding rural areas in Hubei Province from January to August 2019. The survey covered
15 cities (prefectures) in Hubei Province, 4 to 6 administrative villages were randomly selected
in each prefecture, and a total of 77 administrative villages were investigated. Focusing on the
public reading participation in 2018, the survey conducted a questionnaire survey among 77
farmers’ reading rooms and 2,167 rural residents, and interviewed 76 managers of rural libraries
and 166 rural residents. The survey data were mainly collected in two ways: one was to fill out
questionnaires and conduct in-depth interviews with the villagers’ committees or the librarians of
the farmers’ reading rooms on the supply side; the other was to carry out anonymous questionnaires
and sample interviews to rural residents. The investigation and interview of ordinary villagers were
mainly conducted through three channels: one was to ask the village cadres to invite the villagers
with free time to fill in the questionnaire in the village committee; the second was to randomly
invite passing villagers in the village to fill in the questionnaire; the third was to interview the
villagers randomly in the village. For the elderly villagers with literacy and writing difficulties, the
researchers mainly gave oral explanations and filled in questionnaires on behalf of them.
As for questionnaires for the unit, the research group distributed the questionnaires to the
managers of 77 farmers’ reading rooms in Hubei Province. The basic information about the
construction of farmers’ reading rooms was obtained as follows. 59 farmers’ reading rooms
covered an area of less than 50 square meters, 10 with an area of 50 to 100 square metres, 4 with
100 to 150 square metres and 4 with 150 to 200 square metres. There were four national model
farmers’ reading rooms, nine provincial model farmers’ reading rooms, two five-star farmers’
reading rooms, one four-star farmers’ reading room, five three-star farmers’ reading rooms, and
two municipal model farmers’ reading rooms. 67 villages were staffed with managers. The farmers’
reading rooms had an average collection of 3,618.46 volumes and an average of 27.47 titles of
newspapers and periodicals. The average opening hours in 2018 were 260.89 days, with an average
of 7.3 hours per day. The average number of visitors was 388.0. The average number of books
borrowed was 336.2 volumes. 35 farmers’ reading rooms held reading activities, with an average
of 3.26 events per reading room and 103.91 participants per event.
In terms of questionnaires for rural residents, the research group issued a total of 2,167
questionnaires. After eliminating 146 questionnaires that were incomplete, wrong or illogical,
2,021 valid questionnaires were finally obtained. In terms of interviews, we obtained 66 interview
materials for managers of farmers’ reading rooms and 166 interview records for rural residents.
Sample statistics (see Table 1) show that the surveyed rural residents have a reasonable distribution
in terms of male/female ratio, education structure, occupation structure, education level, income
status, living status, etc., which is representative and can better reflect the basic characteristics of
rural residents in provinces in the central region.