A PUBLIC debate gathering directors and chief librarians from public libraries above the prefecture level who came on invitation to celebrate the 60th birthday of Shanghai Library, has eventually turned out as the most interesting and heated session of the sixth Shanghai International Library Forum (SILF 2012) and even across the Diamond Jubilee events of Shanghai Library.

This session, nominally a sub-forum of the SILF 2012, was organized by Shanghai Library and the Shanghai Society for Library Science, under the theme of “Changing versus Persisting” and took place in the morning of July 19. It was attended by Ms. Liu Huiping, the deputy director of the Development & Management Center of the National Cultural Resources and Information Sharing Project, three deputy directors of the hosting library Mr. Zhou Deming, Mr. Chen Chao and Mr. Liu Wei, as well as some 50 chief librarians from libraries at the provincial and prefecture level.

Two veteran librarians, Prof. Fan Bingsi of the East China Normal University and Prof. Li Guoxin from the Peking University Library, were invited to chair the two-part session which addresses the most awkward and bewildering questions to libraries around China – how to stay in relevance with the changing environment while sticking to its cultural mission? And how to meet the new challenge of delivering quality services on a totally free basis?

Topics of the two parts sparked off lively debates about the library functions and the challenges they are facing in nowadays changing era. In the first part the participants were unanimously emphasizing that information services should no longer be maintained as library’s function of primary importance; the library instead, should become a “good third place” for its patrons and should take the new task and responsibility of reshaping the cultural space for the city.

Opinion mixed on the new regulation issued earlier in 2011 by the Ministry of Culture that made the free accessibility to the library and its basic services mandatory, which posed a major challenge or even crisis to many libraries in China at present. Some believed the mandate was aimed to make libraries healthier and more relevant as public welfare, while others argued that it is necessary and conducive for libraries to make profits through value-added services to support themselves and sharpen their competitiveness in certain areas.

They were all agreed however, that although the library is on an irreversible track to change, it shall sustain its core values and fundamental missions as a knowledge and information center in support of the learning, entertaining and research needs of the public.