Key Issues and Practical Pathways of Promoting High-Quality Development through Reading: Overview of the First Symposium on Standards and Evaluation in Reading Promotion

Abstract

[Purpose/Significance] Establishing reading promotion standards and evaluation systems has become the key to the quality development of reading promotion. Whether from the perspective of achieving social justice or moving reading promotion into mainstream services, the implementation of reading promotion standards and evaluation is imperative. This article combines the content of the first academic seminar on standards and evaluation in reading promotion with current research in this area. It provides direction for the development of reading promotion standards and evaluation work, moving towards an era of high standards and high quality in reading promotion. [Method/Process] This article summarizes the key issues of current reading promotion work, including the necessity, feasibility and specific implementation methods of implementing reading promotion standards and evaluation work, as well as research on building a shared database and communication platform for reading promotion, answering the questions about basic issues of reading promotion such as the feasibility of implementing standards and evaluation work and how to practise them. In addition, this study takes the best practice cases of six libraries as examples and analyzes the reading promotion standards and evaluation work of these libraries from three perspectives: public library standardization, university library standardization, and the evaluation of reading promotion activities. [Results/Conclusions] The development direction of reading promotion standards and evaluation work includes establishing a standardized evaluation system, building an exchange platform, developing a reading promotion standard toolkit, carrying out full-process standardization and multi-dimensional effectiveness evaluation, constructing an evaluation model and providing professional reading promotion training for librarians. The standard and evaluation work of reading promotion in China is still in its infancy. Although the article clarifies the importance, urgency and difficulty of the current reading promotion standardization and evaluation work, it also reveals the consensus building that exists in the initial exploration of the related work. Due to the inadequacy, low planning implementation rate, single type of participating institutions and other problems, the academic community is still in a state of confusion regarding various basic issues of reading promotion standards and evaluation, and further research and practice are urgently needed. This article is not only a summary of the current reading promotion standards and evaluation practices, but also an outlook on the development direction of the future reading promotion standards and evaluation. It is hoped that the reading promotion work will continue to move towards standardization, specialization and high-quality development in the future.

Keywords

• reading promotion|national reading|reading promotion standards|reading promotion evaluation|collaborative governance