Problems, causes, and reflections on exhibitions of document collection institutions in China: Triangulation of literature analysis and empirical study

Exhibitions have become a major highlight of information communication and innovative services in Chinese libraries, archives, and local chronicles museums in recent years. However, many of these exhibitions have been hindered in “dialogue” with their audiences, leading to a limited impact. Hence, this study employed a triangulation approach, combining literature analysis and empirical study, to identify the existing problems of libraries, archives, and local chronicles exhibitions. On the one hand, perspectives were refined from previous studies through literature analysis to establish a research foundation for exhibition issues. On the other hand, nine institutions were selected for empirical study through importance-performance analysis (IPA) in east, central, and west China, integrating audience perspectives into problematic space. Based on the triangulation evidence, the problems mainly focus on three aspects: architectural planning, exhibition business, and public services, whereas the causes of the problems include stereotypes, late start points, and so on. The root causes appear to lie in the failure to transform from the document center to the public center, and the imbalance of curatorial theory research as a constraint bottleneck. These findings are expected to be utilized to enhance the specialization of Chinese documentary exhibitions, which attempt to overcome the difficulties of audience understanding and realize the real value of documents and the communication function of the media, thus promoting an effective dialogue between exhibitions and audiences.