图书馆学理论道路的迷茫、艰辛与光荣——中国图书馆学暨《中国图书馆学报》六十年

A Review of the Theory of Library Science in China:1956-2016

中国当代图书馆学自1956年起步,经历了60年艰难的发展。本文通过对《中国图书馆学报》及其他刊物已发表论文的分析,揭示中国图书馆学60年的发展道路和取得的成就。文章将当代中国图书馆学置于历史环境和国际环境中,分迟到的起点、持续的徘徊、艰难的起步、漫长的重建、迷茫中破局、新世纪的理论光辉等不同阶段,考察当代中国图书馆学的历史进步。

Contemporary Library Science in China has gone through 60 years＇ tough development since the starting point in 1956. This paper tries to disclose the journey and achievements of Chinese Library Science and Journal of Library Science in China in the past 60 years based on the analysis of published journal articles. This paper analyzes Chinese contemporary Library Science in the context of Chinese Library Science history and the international Library Science environment. By exploring the theoretical starting point and the phases of Chinese contemporary Library Science, the paper determined the starting point of Chinese contemporary Library Science was 1956 and divided the history into 5 phases; then the progress of each phase was studied. The features of 5 phases could be summarized as follows. 1957-1966 was a wandering phase for Chinese Library Science. The research highlights of this period were the theoretic foundation of Library Science, the union catalog and the library classification. But comparing these achievements with those of New Library Movement or international Library Science in the corresponding phase, the gap between Chinese Library Science and international Library Science was enlarged. 1973-1978 could be called the tough starting period. Late ＂Cultural Revolution＂ achievements like MARC by Liu Guojun and subject indexing by Qiu Feng narrowed the gap between Chinese and international Library Science research. 1979-1991 was the phase of theoretical rebuilding for Chinese Library Science. It could be divided into three periods as recovery of empirical Library Science, critics of empirical Library Science, and formation ofnew-type Library Science. Chinese Library Science realized the transformation from empirical description to scientific spirit, from micro to macro field, from critical research to building research, from unitary to a diversified theoretical structure. 1991-2001 is the breaking period for Chinese Library Science from a lost situation. In the 1990s the socialist market economy had a strong impact on the library values, and the Library Science lost its way to the current situation and future, which made the 10 years the toughest period in the Chinese Library Science history. The publication of the series of dialogues between Wu Jianzhong and international library scholars were regarded that the Chinese Library Science had already undergone the low-level communication only via literature translation between Chinese and foreign languages. The overwhelming concern about the digital library technology made the IT research become an organic part of Chinese Library Science. 2002-2016 is the shining period of Chinese Library Science theories. The development of this period had three characteristics. The first is that Chinese Library Science promoted the new library values such as the universal access and openness, fair service, free service, and central-branch library system, which lead Chinese public libraries to the revolution on policy, management and service. The second is that the Chinese Library Science was involved in the research on international library research and even took the lead in some research areas. The third is the Chinese Library Association created the working pattern which is similar to library associations in developed countries, i.e., leading the library industry engaging in theoretical research by organizing the academic activities. Although Chinese Library Science still could not exportits theories, thoughts and ideas, we expect that it could be part of members of international Library Science and could contribute to the library theories. 29 refs.