Yu Qun reflects on his experience promoting the development of the public cultural service system from 2009 to 2013, during his tenure with the Department of Social Culture and the Department of Public Culture in the former Ministry of Culture. He points out the rapid changes in the public cultural service landscape and suggests that we should set clear objectives, reform and innovate resource allocation, and deepen research on public culture methodologies. Kuai Dashen, from the perspective of central decision-making and comprehensive deployment, identifies 2005-2015 as the “golden decade” for establishing the basic framework of the public cultural service system, while 2015-2025 marks the decade of building a modern public cultural service system. Based on the historical development of Shanghai’s public library service system. Zhou Deming believes that Shanghai’s experience serves as a model, proposing future directions that include restructuring, role delineation, service standardization, enhanced personnel training, and practical problem-solving to strengthen the public library service system.

2005 was called the ‘first year’ of public culture in China. From 2005 to 2024, the development of the public cultural service system can be broadly divided into three developmental stages. The period from 2007 to 2019, spanning over a decade, is marked by rapid and leapfrog development. The landmark achievements over the past 20 years include the free opening of public cultural facilities, the promulgation of two important laws on public culture, the establishment of national demonstration zones for public cultural services, the implementation of the “Three Reforms” in the public culture sector, and the promotion of high-quality development in public cultural services. Currently, public culture faces new challenges. In alignment with the directives of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, there is a need to further explore mechanisms to deliver high-quality public cultural resources and services directly to the grassroots level and to improve the mechanisms for involving social forces in public cultural services.

In recent years, Shanghai has been taking the lead in improving the system and quality of public cultural service to seek high-quality development. First, the city has established a framework for governing culture through law, with strategic planning and thoughtful design to strengthen institutional development. Second, it has optimized the layout of public cultural facilities and introduced new spaces, creating “cultural landmarks” in the hearts of the people at different levels and categories. Third, by advancing supply-side reforms, it has effectively pooled and allocated high-quality cultural resources through market-driven mechanisms. Fourth, Shanghai has focused on the cultural needs of urban youth, tailoring unique services to ensure a precise alignment between supply and demand. Fifth, the city has guided various public cultural facilities to offer extended services, further expanding service coverage. Lastly, it has encouraged multiple entities, including all levels of government, public cultural institutions, and social forces, to encourage integrated initiatives for public cultural services and collaborative development within the Yangtze River Delta region.

Over the past 20 years, Shanghai has been constantly pushing forward the construction and development of community cultural activity centers, achieving full coverage of the “15-minute public cultural service circle” across its neighborhoods and townships. Firstly, it adheres to the “people-oriented” principle and continuously strengthens the network of basic public cultural service facilities at the grassroots level, thus promoting the balanced development of public cultural services. Secondly, through government leadership and active participation of social forces, Shanghai carries out professional, standardized and socialized management of community cultural activity centers, enhancing the vitality of public cultural development. Thirdly, by fostering a model of diversified integration, the city has pioneered joint construction and resource sharing to improve the quality and efficiency of its public cultural services.

The international exchange of mass culture is of great significance for enhancing the influence of Chinese civilization. In the context of the opening-up strategy, these exchanges have continued to advance. In recent years, guided by professional associations and driven by branded cultural activities targeting international audiences, mass culture has gradually evolved to include new concepts, categories, and expressions that resonate both at home and abroad. This evolution has strengthened China’s capacity for international communication and enhanced the nation’s influence in global discourse. Looking ahead, the international exchange of mass culture should actively integrate into the international discourse system, facilitate smoother channels of international cooperation, focus on innovation of characteristic brands, and build a high-caliber talent pool. By doing so, China can continue to enhance the soft power of national culture.

As a federal country, the United States has very different policies, management and operational modes for the small and rural libraries. However, research for small and rural libraries from a “state” perspective has been limited. This paper chooses Massachusetts, Texas and California to analyze their federal and state laws and regulations, association supporting measures, and the basic and innovative service programs offered by small and rural libraries at the macro, meso, and micro levels. The study reveals four key findings: firstly, multi-level government and community funding work together to promote development; secondly, basic services are guaranteed whereas innovative services are tailored to community needs; thirdly, project-based funding applications are essential in ensuring successful implementation and growth; and lastly, emphasis is placed on building a professional team and on the leadership training of librarians.

In the context of the national plans to advance the digitization of ancient books in the new era, Peking University Library adheres to the concept of user orientation and service supremacy and actively carries out the digitization of ancient books with the help of its rich and valuable collection of ancient literature resources. Leveraging readers’ demands, educational and research projects, and active participation in national preservation initiatives, the library has achieved preliminary results in the construction of digital resources of ancient books. By reviewing the process, security measures, and service methods of the digitization resources, we summarize the existing problems and propose corresponding suggestions for improvement. The goal is to further promote the efficient development of ancient book digitalization and to provide references for other libraries.

By building a subject branch library platform in university library, we aim to provide precise and comprehensive subject-based service to university users and assist in scientific research. By elaborating on the concept and value of the subject branch library platform, we define its architecture and use Shenyang University of Technology Library as a case study to illlustrate practical demonstration and implementation pathways. Building a subject branch library platform is an important step in exploring and practicing subject-focused services, which can fully leverage the subject-specific resources, characteristic collections, and professional information service in university library.

The organization and digitization of ancient books have garnered widespread attention in recent years and have rapidly advanced under the support of various national policies. The achievements in organizing, publishing, and digitizing ancient books, as an essential embodiment of China’s rich cultural heritage, increasingly demonstrate their role and advantages in promoting public cultural services. Through a questionnaire survey, this study investigates the current status and challenges in the nonprofit utilization of digital ancient books, identifies five key conditions for successful utilization, and proposes three strategies for sustainable development of a national-level ancient book digitization platform. This study provides a valuable reference for the public welfare utilization of ancient book digitization and for the development of a national platform for ancient books.

The 2024 World Open Library Foundation (WOLFcon) annual conference was successfully held at the University of London, focusing on the progress and future directions of the Foundation’s projects. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on the implementation experiences of projects such as FOLIO, ERM, VuFind, GOKb, as well as library consortium solutions like ReShare and OpenRS, along with the exploration by national libraries and other libraries in these projects. The conference highlighted three core characteristics of future libraries: openness, collaboration, and intelligence. As a key driver of the open science movement, libraries will play a crucial role in promoting global knowledge sharing. Through multi-dimensional collaboration in open-source technologies, consortium cooperation, and data openness, future libraries will accelerate the process of global knowledge sharing and the advancement of open science. Artificial intelligence is also gradually becoming an important tool for enhancing smart library services and optimizing operations.

University libraries play an important role in improving AI literacy among academic communities in the AIGC era. This study conducts a survey of 60 university libraries, focusing on the 47 libraries that have developed AI literacy education as research objects. It explores the practice models of AI literacy education in university libraries from four dimensions: education subjects, target audiences, education approaches, and contents. Based on the survey results, recommendations are proposed to enhance AI literacy education in Chinese university libraries, including strengthening collaboration with external entities, adapting programs to different audiences, implementing stage-based education tailored to different formats, and establishing a comprehensive curriculum framework.

As a core channel of information dissemination, short-video platforms play a crucial role in the governance of false health information, aligning with the the strategy of “Healthy China” and the concept of network security. Unlike traditional social media such as Sina Weibo and WeChat, which are predominantly graphic-based and text-based, short videos combine text, audio and image in a multimodal way, and false health information dissemination via this medium urgently needs to be studied. This research has analyzed the factors influencing users’ dissemination of short videos of false health information, providing insights for the prevention and control of misinformation and improving governance on short-video platforms. A dissemination model was constructed based on ternary interaction decision theory. Based on a combination of questionnaire surveys, regression analysis, and user interviews, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to analyze configurations influencing the dissemination of false health information. Key factors such as users’ age, gender, health information literacy, health concerns, information risk perception, information source credibility, platform ease of use and platform service quality were found to significantly affect the spread of false health information. The fsQCA revealed 2 configurations associated with a high tendency to spread false health information in short videos, and 10 configurations associated with a low tendency to do so. These findings contribute to strategies for governing health information on short-video platforms and optimizing the information ecosystem.

“We should inherit and promote predecessors’ cultural heritage rather than pursuing personal interests.” This idea was presented by Gu Tinglong, a famous Chinese bibliographer, in the Proposal on Founding Ho Chung Library, and has been widely praised in the academia for more than 80 years, then has become the spiritual pillar and the model among library practitioners. The text of this document is considered to be the final version in the Collected Works of Gu Tinglong (also seen in the new edition of Gu Tinglong’s Complete Works), and academia believe that the original manuscript no longer exists. This year, on the 120th anniversary of Mr. Gu’s birth, we re-examined the collection of documents and the relics donated by Gu Songfen (Gu Tinglong’s son) in Beijing in 2011, and surprisingly found the original manuscript of the Proposal. Then we determined the final version based on the perspective of genetic criticism and through carefully and repeatedly considering, gathering opinions of various people, revising drafts many times. The revisions, margin notes and sticky notes in this manuscript are of great research value. This paper studies the author’s original intentions and the deep opinions of Ye and Zhang’s, and explores the process from the revision to the publication, in order to provide further promotion for the academia to Gu Tinglong’s library career thought and the initial situation of the library’s establishment.

The 4-volume codex of Huihui Yaofang in the collection of the National Library of China is the only surviving precious book that records the medical and cultural exchanges between China and Arabia and Persia, it is also important evidence of the cultural exchanges of diversified medicines along the “Belt and Road”. However, its edition and compilation style has not attracted enough attention in the academic community. Current studies mostly accept Mr. Song Xian’s point of view, namely “it is an imitation of the format of Shengji Zonglu”. It is found that Huihui Yaofang is not consistent with the original version of Shengji Zonglu (carved by Dade in the Yuan Dynasty) concerning the compilation style, but highly similar to the original version of Pujifang (copy of the Ming Dynasty) in terms of the style of the compilation, the division of the categories and the layout. Pujifang was completed in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Huihui Yaofang is likely to be modeled on the Pujifang’s compilation style, so its publication date should be in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, after the Hongwu-Yongle period, instead of the generally accepted late Yuan and early Ming.