FREE POLICY IN PUBLIC LIBRARY SYSTEM IN CHINA: SUBJECT, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGY

Abstract

On the day of 2011, February 10, the ministry of culture and ministry of finance in China jointly issued a public policy document entitled as «on promoting free opening of national art galleries public libraries and cultural center stations». This document clearly declared the basic objective and goal of free policy in these public service domains as: till the end of the year 2011, all public libraries in China should follow the free policy on entrance fee, using of public space and facilities and basic services. This current study traced the theoretical extrapolations of assessment of public library system and its significance to the continuing service improvement and nation building. Following a qualitative research design, this paper focused on the enumeration of three key components of public library assessment system in China, namely subject, criteria and methodology. Western historically influential theories were referred to. However, the contextualization of these theoretical thoughts into a specific (eastern and socialismdominated) national culture, ideology, praxis and social milieu would be high lightened in the theoretical constructs and orientation of this paper. Towards the end this paper draws on conclusion by using a case study of Liu Zhou City Library(LZCL) in adopting the free policy. The objective of this paper is to introduce to librarian practitioners who are facing the same plights a workable model in constructing a nimble and fit assessment system based on its own social scenario.