Page 72 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

CHEN Geng & HU Yachun / The attribution analysis of low participation in public reading 071
among rural residents: A survey from 77 administrative villages and rural libraries in Hubei Province

in the following aspects: insufficient cognition, low participation rate, low participation frequency
and short participation period, which demonstrates low participation.
In terms of awareness, among 2,021 valid samples, 845 people were aware of the farmers’
reading room in their village, accounting for 41.8% of the total. Among those who were aware
of the reading room, the number of visitors was even less. Only 556 rural residents visited the
reading room, accounting for 27.5% of all residents and 65.8% of those who knew the reading
room. In reality, the visitors participated in reading at a superficial level. In 2018, the number of
participation of rural residents was 1.8 times per capita and their duration of stay was short. 339
people stayed for less than 30 minutes, accounting for 61.0% of the participants. In terms of the
number of books borrowed, 66.6% people borrowed less than 5 books, and 33.4% borrowed no
less than 5 books. In terms of the reading activities held by the farmers’ reading room, only 219
people participated in activities in 2018, accounting for 39.4% of those who visited the reading
room and 10.83% of the research sample, which was relatively low in proportion.

3 An attribution analysis of rural residents’ low participation in public
reading

3.1 Person

Rural residents are the persons in rural public reading activities. Reading ability, reading cognition
and reading effort are the three main factors that affect rural residents’ non-participation in public
reading.

3.1.1 Reading ability
The ability of public reading mainly refers to the physiological and cultural ability of rural
residents to participate in public reading. Physiological ability generally includes the individual’s
visual condition and mobility, that is, whether the individual has the visual condition of reading,
whether he/she can visit the public reading space. Cultural ability refers to the level of basic
cultural literacy and knowledge required to participate in reading, which is principally measured by
educational background and literacy level. The surveyed are basically residents with physiological
ability. Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on the influence of cultural ability on public reading
participation.
In the rural areas, there are still a large number of illiterate and low-educated people with
primary school education or below, who basically do not have the cultural ability to participate
in public reading. According to the survey data, 25.3% of the surveyed residents had primary
school education or below, 31.5% junior high school education, 22.3% senior high school or
technical secondary school education, 20.1% junior college or undergraduate education, and
0.8% postgraduate degree or above. The participation of rural residents in public reading is