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

ideologicalization in the education of Library Science. Along with the ultra-leftism that already
existed in China at that time, Soviet’s educational thought had negative influence on LSE. It
maintained that LSE served the class struggle, with ideological and political education as the
fundamental. This thought also advocated socialism and opposed capitalism in universities and
colleges, and even criticized those reputed scholars in Library Science as reactionary academic
authorities serving bourgeois. Moreover, it demanded that the teaching materials of LSE majors
should take politics as the dominant and esteem the present over the past, which thoroughly
violated the law of education itself.

3.1.3 The influence on the content of LSE
Educational thoughts determine the teaching content. China’s LSE in the 1950s basically
borrowed the curriculum and content of the Soviet’s, adopted Soviet’s teaching materials by direct
translation, or edited teaching materials and designing courses in accordance with the principles
set by Soviet textbooks. Library scientist Liu Guojun once said, “Speaking of the subject ‘Library
Catalogue’, the department of Library Science of Peking University originally offered two courses,
namely Classification and Cataloguing; however, after studying the Soviet theories and experience
in Library Science, the faculty thought they should learn from the Soviet Union that combined
library catalogues of all kinds as a whole in teaching” (G.J. Liu, S.Y. Chen, & F.Z. Wang, 1957,
p.1). Such total Sovietization was alleviated in the 1960s when the Sino-Soviet Split took place,
but its influence still remained for years.
In 1961, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed a policy of
“adjustment, reinforcement, enrichment, and improvement”, and the adjustment of China’s LSE
also started, including adjusting the curriculum and teaching content and editing new materials. For
instance, from 1961 to 1963, a number of teaching materials were compiled under the joint efforts
of Peking University, Wuhan University and the Cultural Institute of the Ministry of Culture,
including An Introduction to Library Science, Library Collection and Catalogue, Bibliography,
and Reader Services. Under the instruction of experts, these materials laid emphasis on three
fundamental aspects, namely fundamental theories, fundamental knowledge and fundamental
skills, which were a series of teaching materials of high quality after the founding of New China
(F.Z. Peng, 1999).
For LSE, the most influential as well as the most ruinous social event during the 1950-1977
period was the Cultural Revolution. From 1966 to 1971, the departments of Library Science
at Peking University and Wuhan University suspended classes and ceased enrollment, while
the teaching staff were criticized and denounced as corrective labor in the countryside, and the
education in Library Science was at a complete standstill. Since 1972, five classes of two-year
education programs were offered in these two universities, which had enrolled Worker-Peasant-
Soldier students. However, LSE failed to return to normal in this given social environment, and
there were absolutely no possibilities for its recovery.