Farmers' Reading Rooms and Information and Communications Technology in Rural Areas of Beijing

LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2013 (“Community Informatics in China,” edited by Kate Williams), pp. 95–104. © 2013 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois Abstract The reading rooms in the rural areas of Beijing are among the oldest farmers’ reading rooms in China. By 2011, 3,974 farmers’ reading rooms had been established in rural areas of Beijing; there is now one farmers’ reading room in each village. This essay investigates the use of farmers’ reading rooms and information and communication technology (ICT) by villagers in eight villages of Fangshan District in Beijing from the perspective of community informatics. The study that forms the basis of this essay found that the “hollowing-out” of the rural population is one of the major reasons why the utilization rate of farmers’ reading rooms, computers, and the Internet is still low in the rural areas of Beijing. Thus, the author argues that although mobile Internet applications may narrow the urban-rural digital divide, it is necessary to accelerate the digitization upgrade of the farmers’ reading rooms in rural areas. The government should also develop appropriate related policies, give subsidies to reduce Internet access fees, and prioritize training farmers in the use of ICT.