| The 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party has outlined the goal of speeding up the modernization of agriculture and rural areas,thus pointing the direction of building new modes of agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics.Using different media platforms and knowledge-as-a-service platforms,raising farmers' level of new knowledge and new skills in an all-round way,and helping with the popularization and application of agricultural technology and Internet in the rural areas are important steps towards the goal.This paper focuses on how to use rural libraries and other rural public cultural facilities to build rural knowledge-as-a-service platforms of all media to satisfy the needs of new farmers for knowledge and information.Based on the concept of development communication,this paper adopts such approaches as literature review,survey research and statistical analysis to research the rural libraries of Ningxiang County,Changsha County,Pingjiang County and Youxian County in Central China's Hunan Province as well as those of Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province.469 questionnaires have been sent out and there are 435 effective feedbacks.The survey finds that the farmers have had the habit of using digital media and they are willing to pay for the Internet and new media.Most of those surveyed have several digital media products at the same time and among them mobile phones and computers are the most common ones and also the most frequently used media.The farmers go on the Internet mainly for news and new knowledge and those elder farmers tend to read for knowledge more than the young ones.The survey also finds that rural libraries are highly regarded among farmers and the utilization ratio has reached a certain magnitude.What interests farmers most and what they need most urgently include books relevant to their life as well as books about laws,regulations and policies.Most of their reading needs can be satisfied at the rural libraries.However,there is a huge gap between their demands for books about agricultural cultivation and animal husbandry and what they can really acquire.The survey results have verified the necessity and feasibility of building rural knowledge-as-a-service platforms of all media.Based on the differences of the dominant party,the platforms can be classified as government-led to serve the farmers,enterprise-led to attract more users and farmers-crowdfunded to meet their own needs.The size of the three basic models can be various and the levels,the operation modes and the monetary sources are also very different with each having advantages and disadvantages of their own.In practice a model or a combination of different models can be applied. |
