Page 69 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

068 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

and management are listed at large. The description pays great attention to the various problems
about organizing Chinese books. The critical attitude is adopted in this book to achieve the goal of
justice, while it is neither fossil nor novel. The illustrations and charts in this book are of help for
readers’ verification. It is easier to observe and understand the various kinds of methods.”(“New
book introduction”, 1926, p.7) In the chapter of “establishment and expense”, the total cost of
establishing a library, including the cost of construction, equipment, books and affairs are allocated
with scientific proportions. And the same goes to the total cost of operation including books,
journal and staff’s salaries. In addition, he mentioned that architects should take charge of the
building construction methods, while the interior functions should be decided by librarians. In the
chapter of “construction and equipment”, the idea that interior functions of the building are more
important than exterior appearance is still of great significance to the construction and development
of library.
In the aspect of library organization structure, Hong Fanwu advocated to set different
departments, according to the scope of services, the amount of affairs and the number of staff. A
big library should be divided into ten departments (administration department, official documents
and correspondence department, accounting department, promotion department, the department of
binding, reference department, collection management department, cashier department, cataloguing
department, purchase department)(Y. F. Hong,1926), while a small library can merge similar
departments according to the nature of the departments, for the sake of simpleness. However, he
also agreed to adjust the scale of department according to business function of each library. For
example, when he was the chief librarian of Tsinghua University Library at the end of 1920’s, he
adjusted the former organization into three departments, which were acquisition and cataloguing,
general affairs and reference. At the end of 1930’s, when he was the chief librarian of National
Central University Library, the interior organization of library was divided into eight departments,
including general affairs, acquisition, Chinese cataloguing, western language cataloguing,
collection management, reading, reference and periodicals. “For the convenience of readers, he
guaranteed each branch library with a librarian”(F. W. Hong, 1937, p.9).
Hong Fanwu thought that the library in our country was still in the embryonic period, and there
was no formal experience, while it was unsuitable to learn from Europe and America. Therefore, it
was necessary to set executive council to gather librarians’ experience to promote the library services.
Besides, the library committee should be set up to help select books and deal with affairs (Y. F.
Hong, 1926). The organization structure which was responsible for itself but coadjutant with others,
guaranteed that the library not only had some administrative power, but also gained the participation
and support from universities and social elite. It is really admirable that Mr. Hong was able to come
up such a scientific and reasonable library organization structure, at that time.
Liu (1963, p.51) once evaluated Library organization and management: “it is not a replica of
western Library Science, but a guide book which is combined with the requirements of modern
libraries, based on the general conditions of libraries at home”. Y. F. Jiang (2009, p.344) evaluated