中国图书馆报刊工作史述略

Brief Review on the History of Newspapers and Periodicals Services in Libraries of China

报刊的产生为图书馆报刊工作提供了对象和条件。与图书相比,报刊产生的时间要晚得多。古代报刊的品种和数量有限,传播范围狭窄。当时的图书馆不很重视报刊的收藏和利用,更谈不上什么完整的报刊工作。到了近代,即19世纪中期以后,随着科学、经济的发展,近代报刊大量出现,报刊产生了巨大作用,受到了人们的重视。图书馆也开始重视报刊的收集、整理、典藏和利用,逐步形成了报刊工作系统。对世界各国图书馆来说,报刊工作只有一二百年的历史。

The System of newspapers and periodicals service had been taken shape in libraries of China in the1920s.The 70-year history might be devided into 4 periods:1.The rudimentary period (from the endof 19th century to the begining of the Republic of China);2.The formation and development period(from the beginning of the Republic of China to 1937 when there wasa large quantity of newspapersand periodicals issued,among them,779 titles started publication in 1928-1937).In the meantime,the collection of newspapers and periodicals had increased greatly (According to the incomplete statis-tics of 14 libraries in Beijing in 1935,there were over 150,000 titles collected),Many libraries estab-lished their own separate body for newspapers and periodicals services and the theoretical and practicalstudies on newspapers and periodicals services had gone deep uninterruptedly.The newspapers and pe-riodicals in university and college libraries had also got underway;3.The depression period (1938-1949);4.The tortuous but prosperous development period (1949-1989) during which thd Library ofNewspapers and Periodicals was established in Shanghai in 1955 and the National Index to the Infor-mation of the Major Newspapers and Periodicals was published also in 1955.Up to 1988,the wholecountry had run over 10,000 newspapers and periodicals.Now Library staffs engaging in newspapersand periodicals services generally make up 20-30% of the total,funds for the services make up 40-50% of the whole library finance.Some libraries and information agencies have established computer-aided cataloging system of newspapers and periodicals.And at the same time,newspapers and periodi-cals have become one of the main information resources.