zhang.p65 164 College & Research Libraries March 2002 164 Toward Continual Reform: Progress in Academic Libraries in China Ke Ping Translated by Sha Li Zhang Ke Ping is Director of the Department of Library and Information Sciences in the Zhengzhou University Library; e-mail: pingke@371.net. Sha Li Zhang is Head of Technical Services Division at Wichita State University Libraries; e-mail: shali.zhang@wichita.edu The original version of this article appeared in China’s Journal of Academic Libraries 19, no.5 (2001): 8–12. This article traces recent developments in China’s academic libraries. Areas covered include managing human resources, restructuring library departments, revising and implementing new policies, evaluating ser- vices and operations, establishing library systems, building new struc- tures, and exploring joint-use library models. China’s academic libraries are focusing more on the user; consequently, several major changes accompany this endeavor. he rapid expansion and devel- opment of higher education in China has provided unique challenges and opportunities for advancement of its academic libraries. These libraries must actively explore new ways of improving their services in order to adapt to the ever-changing environment of their parent institutions. To achieve this goal, many libraries have focused on en- hancing administrative functions through continual reform of librarywide structures and effective use of human resources. Sig- nificant progress has been made in these libraries in the past several years. In this article, the author attempts to outline some of the changes and improvements through this reform. Improving Human Resources Management Academic libraries in China have contin- ued to strive for high-quality services for library users in the past decade. There is no doubt that library users must remain the main focus of library operations. There is still much room to improve ser- vices to users in these libraries. However, shifting focus from user services to library personnel has received much attention in recent years. Academic libraries have started placing greater emphasis on their human resources than before in order to maximize the ability of employees and to help them reach their potential. Realiz- ing that high-quality library services can be provided only by library staffs who are motivated and committed to such goals, many libraries engaged in redesigning library positions and selecting employees based on their qualifications. The follow- ing are just a few examples. First, some libraries no longer keep lifelong employment practices as they did in the past. Instead, they have started con- tractual employment. Under this concept, the contract clearly states the position (job description and requirements) and the Toward Continual Reform 165 salary. The most qualified employees are chosen for the position. The contract is renewed at the specified period. After position restructuring at the Peking Uni- versity Library, all positions have been categorized into nine different ranks. An employee who is appointed to each posi- tion within a certain rank is entitled to a salary and stipend according to the re- sponsibilities and qualifications specified in the position description. In June 1999, there were 210 positions at the Peking University Library. In 2000, the library employed only 202 staff members. From these positions, 178 were chosen through an open selection process. That is, the li- brary re-advertised all positions within the university. These positions were open primarily to the existing personnel of the library. The library staff applied for these positions according to their education, experience, and specialties. Through se- lection, qualified individuals were ap- pointed to advertised positions. Eighty- five percent of the appointed employees received both salary and stipends based on their positions and ranks; fifteen per- cent of the positions received salaries only. Those who were not appointed to the library positions were employed in other supporting units within the univer- sity.1 The Tsinghua University Library took similar steps in redesigning its li- brary positions. There are nine ranks for the library’s 120 positions. Forty percent of them are key positions, and the remain- ing 60 percent are general positions. All employees (including department heads) were appointed on a competitive basis. When appointed, employees signed a contract with the library that is reviewed annually. At the same time, the library implemented a system of “subject librar- ians” learned from its counterparts in the United States. It aims to provide better services for teaching and research. These subject librarians serve as liaisons to aca- demic disciplines, provide library instruc- tions to students, and write library in- structional materials for subject areas. The one-year implementation of this program has proved to be very effective.2 Second, many libraries learned from their counterparts in the United States that employ more student workers than full-time staff. The recent trend in China’s academic libraries is that libraries started employing more student workers and temporary workers and at the same time lowered the number of full-time staff. Therefore, the operational and personnel costs could be reduced. At Dalian Na- tional Minority College in Liaoning Prov- ince, the library started using student volunteers for certain library functions to alleviate staff shortage in the library. This strategy has been very successful.3 Third, libraries started raising stan- dards in selecting directors. In recent years, some academic libraries have re- quired library directors with an advanced degree in library science (master ’s degree or higher). Others have hired library di- rectors who are subject experts or profes- sors with responsibility for guiding doc- toral students. The Tongji University Li- brary in Shanghai even invited a repu- table academician from the Chinese Acad- emy of Sciences to be the library director. There is no doubt that the high qualifica- tions and reputations of these library di- rectors, to some degree, have changed the images and increased visibility of these academic libraries. Restructuring the Library’s Departments In light of the need for operational changes, some libraries have initiated in- ternal restructuring, including streamlin- ing administrative functions and elimi- nating unnecessary positions and departments. These steps enable libraries to operate effectively and efficiently while responding quickly to the demand for im- proved services. The recent trend in China’s academic libraries is that libraries started employing more student workers and temporary workers and at the same time lowered the number of full-time staff. 166 College & Research Libraries March 2002 Moving library staff from other de- partments to public services is one popu- lar method of redirecting staff. Some li- braries have combined such functions as acquisitions with cataloging and stacks management with reading rooms so that staff members from these departments were relocated to public services areas. The Shanghai Jiaotong University Li- brary combined the existing circulation, reading room, and periodicals reading room into one unit; combined the audio- visual and copy services departments; and kept the library administrative of- fice, automation, information services, acquisitions, and cataloging departments unchanged. The library also eliminated serials acquisitions and serials catalog- ing and moved these functions into gen- eral acquisitions and general cataloging, respectively. In addition, the library es- tablished a new department of resource- sharing. Thus, the total number of de- partments was reduced from fifteen to eleven. During this process, twenty-six positions that made up 11 percent of the total positions were eliminated. The Tsinghua University Library went through several restructurings. It only keeps departments such as circulation and reading, acquisitions, automation, technical services, and the science and technology /rare book research institute. The China Agricultural University Li- brary in Beijing has only five depart- ments: automation, acquisitions and cataloging, information services, techni- cal services, and circulation and reading. The total number of personnel in circu- lation and reading is twenty-two, and only five employees are in the acquisi- tions and cataloging department. The Yunnan University Library in Yunnan Province has only four departments: ac- quisitions, circulation and reading, newspaper and periodicals, and informa- tion technology. The library reconfigured its social sciences/humanities informa- tion services into the circulation and reading room department. It also places sciences information services into the in- formation technology department. The library employs only ten people in ac- quisitions. While continuing the restructuring of existing departments, libraries have slowly established new departments. At the Peking University Library, after re- structuring, a new audiovisual depart- ment was added to the existing depart- ments, which include acquisitions, cata- loging, circulation and reading, informa- tion services, periodicals, rare books, and automation. The Capital Normal Univer- sity Library in Beijing added a new data- base department to its existing depart- ments of acquisitions, circulation, read- ing, periodicals, rare books and reference, and automation. The addition of the da- tabase department aims at better manage- ment of the library’s new and retrospec- tive databases. The Fudan University Li- brary in Shanghai recently established the digital department. Another new depart- ment, international exchanges, is respon- sible for exchanging materials, library staff, scholarship, and cooperative projects between the library and other li- braries around the world. The library also organized its circulation and reading functions according to subject areas so that two separate departments, social sci- ences/humanities information services and sciences information services, have been established. At the Zhengzhou University Library in Henan Province, an internal restructur- ing occurred in April 2000. It resulted in reducing the number of departments from seven to five. The periodicals department was merged into the circulation depart- ment and the general reading rooms de- partment. A new department of multime- dia was added. The existing information services department was expanded to in- formation and consulting services. In China’s academic libraries, due to a large number of library staff in nonpublic services areas, each library had to find a way to add more people in public services areas. After restructuring, many academic libraries were able to relocate personnel from nonpublic services to public services areas. Therefore, the situation of staff Toward Continual Reform 167 shortage in public service areas has im- proved. Revising the Existing Policies Policies and procedures are key for or- derly library operations. A library has to continually revise its policies and add new ones to cope with the ever-changing environment. Keeping the policies and procedures updated has become an im- portant benchmark for library manage- ment. In many academic libraries in China, existing policies and procedures were implemented in late 1980s and early 1990s and are no longer adequate to meet the current needs of library operations and demands from users. For instance, some academic libraries still maintain close-stack system; in other libraries, stu- dents are not allowed to share the same reading rooms that are assigned to fac- ulty members, despite the fact that major reference books are housed in these read- ing rooms. Policies need to be changed to reflect current learning and teaching needs. At the same time, libraries want to have their policies and procedures reflect continuity and consistency. For those li- braries that already have implemented an open-stacks policy, there is a continuing effort to open all of the stacks and circu- late all monographic copies. For instance, in the past, the Yunnan University Library did not open the stacks to students for fear of losing books. It is now opening stacks and rare books to senior students. At the same time, it has revised its acquisitions policy, which was based on rigid divi- sions of subject areas. The new policy streamlined the acquisition process for all types of materials. The approval plan has been a popular way of acquiring library materials in U.S. academic libraries since 1970s. For a long time, academic libraries in China used a publisher ’s catalog called New Titles Announcement as a major source of se- lecting and ordering library materials, though this catalog did not cover every subject. In recent years, thanks to alter- native sources of acquiring books, the li- braries have become less dependent on the catalog. An increased workload for librarian selectors and acquisitions staff occurred because they had to go through a variety of catalogs for selection and or- ders. In 1998, the Zhejiang University Li- brary in Zhejiang Province implemented an approval plan. It has not only reduced workload of library staff, but also has in- creased coverage of acquisitions. When the library decided to implement the ap- proval plan, it revised its operational poli- cies and procedures accordingly.4 The increased level of library automa- tion also has provided opportunities to revise existing policies and procedures. Each time a library introduces a new online library catalog system, it impacts the entire library operation. When the Tsinghua University Library introduced a new online catalog system, the library restructured all departments so that all functions are in line with the library goals. Continuing a Large-scale Evaluation In the late 1980s, some major research li- braries in China completed the first round of provincial-wide evaluation. Since then, many provinces and cities also have con- ducted the second-round evaluation, with a focus on library automation. The Education Commission of Hunan Province conducted an evaluation to all academic libraries of the province in 1998. The commission thoroughly reviewed all aspects of each library in its role of sup- porting teaching and learning. Based on the findings, the commission set up high expectations for academic libraries in the twenty-first century. It also issued cita- tions to the libraries and library person- nel who had done outstanding work. Other agencies such as the Guizhou Province Education Commission and the Shandong Province Education Bureau The pressing issue for the academic library is to decide whether to maintain one central library for the entire campus or to continue functions of each branch library after the merger of campuses. 168 College & Research Libraries March 2002 also conducted evaluations of academic libraries in these provinces in 1999 and in 2000, respectively. In Henan Province, with the effort of the Provincial Educa- tion Bureau, all eighteen college and uni- versity libraries were evaluated on the use of technology in 1999. In addition, the bureau evaluated thirty-nine technical college libraries. The bureau’s findings were issued in March 2001. The entire process has resulted in significant im- provement of library services. The evalu- ation process was directly led by the Higher Education Division of the bureau. Each college and university actively en- gaged in the process. Between 1998 and 2000, forty technical colleges invested 32,290,000 yuan (the Chinese currency) into library automation. Four technical colleges put more than 20,000,000 yuan into technology. The Academic Library Committee of Henan Province was also a player in the evaluation process. The com- mittee established the evaluation guide- lines on the use of library technology and library automation. The guidelines set up different criteria for college and univer- sity libraries and for technical college li- braries. Each library first conducted a self- study. Then it was evaluated by represen- tatives and experts appointed by the bu- reau. The entire evaluation process fol- lowed the same standards and guidelines. The library had opportunities to do a self- study and to get feedback from the ex- perts in a timely fashion. The recommen- dations were reasonable and approach- able. Therefore, the evaluation resulted in an improved level of library automation among academic libraries in the province. Establishing Comprehensive Library Systems Traditionally, academic libraries in China are small in terms of their collection and staff sizes. A typical academic library in a major university includes a main library and several reading rooms housed in aca- demic departments. On the one hand, col- lections are often duplicated between the main library and the reading rooms. On the other hand, the university does not provide enough funding for both the li- brary and the reading rooms. Since the late 1990s, mergers among colleges and uni- versities have become an inevitable phe- nomenon. In 2000, 387 general colleges/ universities and 169 adult education insti- tutions merged into 212 general colleges/ universities and 20 adult education insti- tutions, respectively. After the merger, the library on each campus was expanded. In many cases, a typical academic library in- cludes several branch libraries in addition to the main library. The pressing issue for the academic library is to decide whether to maintain one central library for the en- tire campus or to continue functions of each branch library after the merger of campuses. After the merger, many cam- puses started issuing a unified library card that could be used in both the main library and the branch libraries. The Zhejiang Uni- versity was merged with several other uni- versities in the area in September 1999. The university libraries now include one main library and five branch libraries such as science and technology, social sciences and sciences, agriculture, medicine, and one off-campus library. The Sichuan Univer- sity in Sichuan Province kept three librar- ies after the merger: social sciences and sciences, engineering, and medicine. Nanchang University in Jiangxi Province has divided its library into two parts: north and south libraries. Some experts believe that coexistence of the main library and the branch libraries is the ideal model for the current academic environment.5 After the merger, many colleges/univer- sities expanded from a single campus to multiple campuses. The university librar- ies have to face challenges brought forth from the merger. For instance, the library has to use the unified software and online catalog system to share databases and to enable user access to the merged collections. Six libraries within the Yangzhou Univer- sity in Jiangsu Province have recently pur- chased a new online catalog system after careful planning and discussions. When implemented, users of the merged campus expect to access the library collections through the shared catalog system.6 Toward Continual Reform 169 Focus on the Library Building With the expansion of the colleges and universities, the limited library space im- peded effective services to users. Tradi- tionally, in some libraries, reading rooms or reading areas were separated from the library stacks. The Jinan University Li- brary in Guangdong Province renovated the library building in 1996. The renova- tion has enabled users to use open stacks, to read library materials, and to check out books all in one place. The Tsinghua Uni- versity Library removed walls between closed stacks and the reading areas. It also streamlined the circulation desk so that users are able to check out different formats of materials at one service point. In the past, users had to take different formats of materials to several locations to check out. These examples demon- strate the potential for improving the existing library building through reno- vation. In recent years, expanding the existing library building has alleviated the tension between the limited library space and the growing need for stacks. The Tsinghua University Library renovated twice in re- cent years. Its useful square footage en- larged from less than 32,291 square feet to more than 290,619 square feet. The sec- ond renovation also connected the old facility with the new one at the same floor so that user traffic and library operation are well accommodated.7 At the Peking University Library, the new building was opened to the university community in December 1998. The main building of the new library is connected to both north and south wings. The new facility uses open stacks connected with reading ar- eas, is equipped with wire lines, and is linked to the old library facility. There- fore, the entire useful library space be- comes 548,946 square feet that is able to house 6,500,000 volumes, with more than 4,000 seats. It is considered the largest academic library in Asia.8 In designing and renovating library building for academic libraries since late 1990s, many libraries have not only con- sidered user space, stack size, and fitting into the campus landscape, but also have installed networking, an automation sys- tem, a security and monitor system, air- conditioning, and other modern facilities. Exploring Joint-use Library Models For a long time, academic libraries in China operated in an isolated environ- ment. Use of these libraries was restricted to the students, faculty, and staff within the universities. The library rarely shared resources, personnel, and equipment with institutions and individuals outside the campus. In that environment, it was dif- ficult for the library to attract additional funding from external sources. Although some libraries in recent years have at- tempted to change the situation by pro- viding fee-based services to local busi- nesses and by issuing library cards to noncampus users, it did not improve the isolated model of library management. Joint-use of academic libraries is one of the alternatives to change the isolated situation. The East China Normal Univer- sity Library worked with the Shanghai Dongfang Real Estate Company to build an advanced computer education center. The company provided 500,000 yuan for the facilities, and the library is in charge of the operation of the center. The center is open to the company for its technical needs and at the same time is being used as an electronic reading room for the en- tire campus. Thus, both the company and the library benefit from the venture. In 1996, the Harbin Medical University Library merged with the Medical Infor- mation Institute of Heilongjiang Province, becoming the Provincial Medical Docu- mentation and Information Center. This is the first example of a joint program be- tween an academic library and an infor- mation institute in China.9 Most recently, in Shandong Province, the Liaocheng Teachers’ College and the Liaocheng City built a joint-use library that serves as both the academic library and the city public library. The joint-use library is open par- tially to the citizens of the city. This model departed from the conventional model of the isolated academic library. It will en- 170 College & Research Libraries March 2002 courage more libraries to open to the pub- lic and attract external funding to support the academic library. Conclusion China’s academic libraries have under- gone a major transformation in recent years. Creative approaches have resulted in an improvement in human resources, enhanced public services, and refined li- brary operations. Both academic adminis- trators and librarians have aggressively identified areas needing improvement and have worked collectively to make the nec- essary changes happen. It is the general perception in China that the changes made in its academic libraries have significantly improved services for the library user. Notes 1. Zhuo-Xian Gao, “Position Restructuring at Peking University Library,” Journal of Aca- demic Libraries 18, no.5 (2000): 63–66. 2. Jiang Airong, “Tsinghua University Library Establishes Subject Librarians,” Library Jour- nal, no. 6 (1999): 30–31. 3. Wang Bo, “The Role of Student Volunteers,” Library Building, no. 1, (2000): 53–54. 4. Zhang Jun, “Approval Plan: A New Way of Acquiring Chinese Books,” Journal of Aca- demic Libraries 18, no. 3 (2000): 9–11. 5. Chen Guirong, “Restructuring the Academic Libraries in the 21st Century,” Journal of Academic Libraries 19, no.1 (2001): 34–36. 6. Wang Zhengxing and Hou Zhijun, “Jointly Managing Computer Software Upgrades for Academic Libraries,” Hebei Library Journal, no. 4 (2000): 20–23. 7. Gao Jisheng, “Strategies of Academic Library Building Expanding,” Journal of Academic Libraries 18, no. 6 (2000): 8–12. 8. Li Dongming and Wu Zhenjiang, “Crafty Design, Successful Juncture,” Journal of Aca- demic Libraries 18, no. 6 (2000): 21–23. 9. Yuan Jingwei, “Reform on Information Services Management in Academic Libraries,” Li- brary Building, no. 2 (1999): 37–38.