Page 198 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 43

198
198 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.9, 2017

thought of the theory, this paper defines deep reading as a highly involving behavior resulted from
the active impetus generated by the encounter between readers, the organism with mental ability,
and befitting reading materials under the right condition.
What is the most valuable deep reading currently? To answer that, this paper analyzes
the meanings of deep reading for readers and society in digital era, and points out that the
contemporary significance of deep reading does not only have the value of promoting knowledge
learning but also the value of combination between readers and content, which is the compound
value of reading involving knowledge value, recreational value, aesthetic value and moral value.
Could it be possible to find a way to bring people overwhelmed by information technology back
to the joy of deep reading as the reading habits in digital era has changed completely? This paper
discusses three potential strategies of resolving the crisis of deep reading. The first one is to create
encounter opportunity between readers and befitting text, which means to capture readers’ interest
of reading materials at first and then help readers seek the suitable text through more explicit “maps”
or “signs”. The second is to provide an experience guidance which is to make readers immerse
and enjoy the pleasure of deep reading by exploiting the abundant experience created by new
technology. The last one is to bring readers back to conversational nature of reading, in another
word, to reinforce the reading engagement of readers by new social technology, and guide the
reading back to its “dialogue” essence.

The formation and evolution of Melvil Dewey’s thoughts on Library Science
education
ZHOU Ya〇
〇a*
As a pioneer of Library Science education, Melvil Dewey’s educational thoughts needs to be
explored more deeply and systematically. The major objective of this study is to discuss the
forming process and the evolving process of Dewey’s thoughts on Library Science education
from 1876 to 1889, especially before and after 1887, when Columbia College School of Library
Economy was founded. The paper tries to answer the following questions: what the historical
background was like when Dewey founded Library Science education and his ideological roots;
how Dewey’s educational thoughts evolved; whether Dewey’s educational thoughts were purely
pragmatic or not; what characteristics and influences of Dewey’s educational thoughts had. The
main research method of this study is the analysis of historical material, including the primary
archives collected at Columbia University, School of Library Economy of Columbia College,
1887-1889: documents for a history, papers published in Library Journal and other materials.
Library Science education served Dewey’s educational reform ideal. Dewey hoped to be able

* Correspondence should be addressed to ZHOU Ya, Email: yzhou@infor.ecnu.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0003-1632-0685