Page 191 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

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Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China 2017 Vol.43 191

accordance with practice. In the future study, Delphi technique and filed study methods would be
employed to develop and verify the existing antecedents.

Listening to children’s voices: Children as evaluation subjects of their
libraries
〇a*
WANG Pianran〇, XU Jianhua & LI Yaochang
Though children live in a time with a boom of children libraries and related technologies, products,
and services, phenomena of ignoring children’s rights and voices still threat children’s decent
library experience and their perceptions of library services. Nowadays, adult patrons’ satisfaction
evaluation to library service is a routine to improve library service. However, there is not any one
for children library service. Thus, we advocate that let the children be their libraries’ evaluation
subjects. This proposition is justified in three points:
First, theoretical feasibility. Discourses on children have changed from “deficient child” to
“beyond the hegemony of adulthood”. It then is possible to reconsider children’s moral and
political existence apart from adulthood. In developmental psychology, there was a tendency of
revaluing the child in child development. In developmental psychology researches, children’s
roles changed from “closely observed” to “participants”. Children are seen as sense makers and
active social actors nowadays. In other related areas like education and social research, children’s
researches are changed from “study on children” to “study by children”.
Second, practical feasibility. As a reflection of children discourses change, policies change as
well. Internationally, changing from the saying of “children must be protected” in the Geneva
Declaration on the Rights of the Children, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
identified the right to express views and feelings, and be heard as one of four general principles,
along with the right to survival and development, the right to non-discrimination and the primacy
of the best interests of the child. In ALSC Competencies for Librarians Serving Children in Public
Libraries, description of librarian competencies changes from “able to match patrons with materials
appropriate to their interests and ability” to “ensures that all children have full access to library
materials, resources, and services”. Additionally, children-centered thinking is penetrating into
children’s products and services and children’s perspective evaluations and researches increase.
Third, methodology feasibility. Along with the changing of children’s research paradigm,
traditional social research methods, such as interview, auto-photography, survey are adopted to
conduct children researches. In order to research with preschool children and disabled children,
Clark and Statham developed the “mosaic approach” with young children, to facilitate the
listening process. This multi-method approach seeks to create knowledge by combining a variety

* Correspondence should be addressed to WANG Pianran, Email: pianran@mail.nankai.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-0029-2715