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FAN Bingsi / A review of the theory of Library Science in China: 1956-2016 019

years” as the theme. The conference was regarded as “connecting historical library spirits”.
Afterwards, the Annual Conference of the Library Society of China has been the most influential
activity in Chinese library community. Its conference news was also released on IFLA website
which indicated its international influence. Since 2005 the Library Society of China has been
holding New Year Summit to plan important academic agendas of the year such as library rights,
core values and service system construction. The Youth Forum and the China County Librarian
Forum held every two years also take leads in Library Science. For example, the China County
Librarian Forum “drew librarians attention to county libraries neglected for quite a long time and
founded a new domain for theoretical studies” (C.P. Li, 2013). Besides conferences, the Library
Society of China also organized many activities. The Volunteers in Action has organized almost
100 experts to make lectures in grass-roots libraries for 5 years. The activity is targeted at grass-
roots library managers and lectures were about advanced management and service theories, which
exerts a profound effect on development of grass-roots libraries. The activity is also unprecedented
in the international library community in terms of duration, coverage and participants. Reading
promotion activities held by the Library Society of China play a key role in the advanced level of
the theory and practice of Chinese library promotion.

6 Conclusion: Looking forward to theoretical output

The international library community has high expectations towards 2020. Visions of 2020 also
appear in some papers and reports of Chinese Library Science. Nowadays Chinese librarianship is
in a quite advanced level. The construction of public cultural service system results in expansion of
libraries. The application of information technologies promotes the improvement of library service
capabilities and new type reading services enrich libraries’ services. As a result, great research
improvements have been made and some even surpass the international community. What are
expectations towards Library Science in 2020?
Chinese Library Science has not truly gone abroad. The papers published in overseas journals
and speeches made on international conferences by Chinese library scientists were generally
surveys, technology application, introduction of resources and services. We lack the courage and
confidence to export theories and concepts. Therefore, I expect that librarians who could take a
more active part in international Library Science would turn up and mechanisms of theoretical
output would be improved. I also expect that Chinese Library Science could be a true member of
international Library Science and could contribute to library theories.

References

Deng, Y.L. (1957). Several basic problems in compiling union catalog (编制联合目录的几个基本问题).
Bulletin of the China Society of Library Science (图书馆学通讯),(6),7-12.