Analysis of the Relative Efficiency of the Public Libraries in China: The Case of 31 regions

Analysis of the Relative Efficiency of the Public Libraries in China: The Case of 31 regions

Along with the economic development, the demand of cultural activities also is increased. Using the public libraries is one of the cultural activities. The local government establish many public libraries to supply the chance of the cultural activities. The public libraries use the local financial expenditure, so we need to consider the financial expenditure efficiency. We use the DEA-Malmquist method, analyzed the relative efficiency of the regional public libraries in China. The input variables include the number of employed persons, the total collections, and the government subsidy. The output variables include the total number of circulation, and the number of books and periodicals lent to readers. The result finds that the relative efficiency of the regional public libraries is relatively decreased from 2005 to 2015. And after 2011, the relative efficiency is relatively increasing by annual. The improvement of the relative efficiency is from the technological change, not from the efficiency change.