How Far Can We Go in Ensuring Equality of Access to Public Library Services? The Re-Visitation of a Core Professional Value in the Context of Regional and Urban-Rural Inequalities in China

Abstract

Equality of access for all has been a core value of librarianship from Dewey (Wiegand, Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewy, American Library Association, 1996) through Ranganathan (The Five Laws of library science, Edward Goldston, 1931) to Gorman (Our enduring values: librarianship in the 21st Century. American Library Association, 2000) and has been put into practice by librarians by making their libraries as inclusive as possible in their communities. This article is a re-examination of this ethos in the context of a contemporary global society beset by myriad inequalities that uses China as a case study. Regional and urban-rural economic data is presented and compared with regional library funding, collection size, new collections, and floor space data in order to examine the extent of inequality and its impact on service provision. Recent governmental policy responses are then outlined and commented on in relation to equality of access, and the responses of the library profession within China are investigated and their effectiveness evaluated. The article then concludes that while equality of access is firmly enshrined in the manifestos and statutes of library services worldwide, true implementation of it requires much more than a simple call to include everyone in a community. This paper argues that the profession needs to be more proactive in promoting true equal access within such an unequal social context.

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