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

of Wuhan University, Sichuan University and Beijing Normal University respectively; Gu Jiajie
were appointed as deputy director of the Library of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Additionally,
many graduates of the Boone Library School made remarkable contributions to the library
communities overseas. For instance, Alfred Kaiming Chiu, Feng Hanji, Deng Yanlin of Harvard-
Yenching Library, Yan Wenyu and Wang Changbing of the Columbia University Libraries, and Li
Fangfu, Fang Chaoying of the Library of Congress of the US, as well as John C.B. Kuei (Chih-
BerKwei) who worked at the Library Science institute of the University of Chicago. Statistics
show that no less than 1/10 of the graduates of Boone Library School played a role in promoting
the development of East Asian Libraries of the US (F.Z. Peng & M.H. Peng, 2010). Among these
graduates, Alfred Kaiming Chiu is one of the most outstanding representative. As the first class of
graduates of the Boone Library School, Chiu first worked at Xiamen University, and then served as
the librarian of Harvard-Yenching Library for 40 years. A Classification Scheme for Chinese and
Japanese Books, compiled by Chiu, was adopted by over 20 East Asian Libraries in Asia, America,
Oceania, and Europe (Cheng, 2002).

3 The interaction between LSE and the society from 1950 to 1977

The founding of the People’s Republic of China, or the New China, in 1949 opened a new chapter
in China’s history. The library undertakings as well as the environment for LSE had undergone
fundamental changes. The war that had lasted for years finally came to an end, along with the
establishment of the socialist system. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and the
government, the whole nation had carried out economic construction on a large scale. An industrial
system and a national economy system had been preliminarily established in the 1970s, which
were independent and relatively complete. Remarkable achievements had been obtained in science,
education, and culture. The number of institutions of higher education rose from 205 in 1949 to
434 in 1965, while that of public libraries rose from 55 in 1949 to 577 in 1965 (National Bureau
of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, 2014). However, China also made mistakes when
exploring a path to development, which even led to the Cultural Revolution that lasted for totally
ten years. All these had influenced the development of LSE during this period.

3.1 The influence of the social environment on LSE from 1950 to 1977

3.1.1 The influence on the system of LSE
New China gradually established a national management system in which politics was featured
centralization and unity while public ownership plays the dominant role in the national economy.
Higher education was uniformly carried out under the leadership of the country, with private
educational institutions nationalized, merged, and reorganized. Boone Library School was taken
over by the Ministry of Culture in 1951, and was then merged by Wuhan University in 1953,