Page 33 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

032 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.11, 2019

institutions in Japan used to be called “文库”. During the Meiji Restoration, Japan learned from
the West and set up new libraries called “図書館” (the word came from China). As the Qing
government learned from Japan in preparing for constitutionalism, the word “图书馆” became
widely spread in China and still in use today. Words such as “情报” (intelligence) and “干部”
(cadre) also came from Japanese vocabulary, which was imprint of that era (Cheng, 2004).

2.3 Introduction of American librarianship (1912-1949)

After the founding of the Republic of China, the spread of American library science became the
mainstream.
There were several events that were milestones. The first was the founding of the Boone Library
in Wuchang in 1910 which was an American style library and managed just as American libraries.
It can be called the first true new-style library in China because those new-style libraries founded
earlier were actually in name only. The other two events were the founding of the Boone Library
School in Wuchang in 1920 and the Library Association of China in 1925.
The founding of the Library Association of China in 1925 corresponded to the greeting and
send-off of Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick, the American librarian. When Bostwick arrived in Shanghai,
he was greeted by the announcement that the Library Association of China was founded. When he
was going back home, he was seen off by the inaugural meeting of the association. It indicated the
great influence of American librarianship and library science on China (Cheng, 2018).
At the inaugural meeting of the Library Association of China, Liang Qichao, who served as
Director of the National Peking Library between December 1925 and June 1927, delivered the
Speech at the Founding Ceremony of the Library Association of China (Liu & Zhai, 2012). In his
speech, he put forward expectations for the Chinese library community: 1) Founding of Chinese
library science; 2) Cultivating library professionals, that is, library education.
Why did Liang advocate “Chinese library science”? It was because the Chinese library science
was just born and the product under the influence of American library science, which is also why
we call the Internationalization of Chinese library science. At that time we mainly learned from
American library management, including Dewey Decimal Classification, Cutter’s Alphabetic Order
Table, and Cataloging Rules of the Library of Congress, of which Dewey Decimal Classification
and card catalogs had major influence. Although card catalogs are no longer used nowadays, they
broke the tradition of Chinese book catalog and promoted the invention of indexing system for
Chinese characters, which resulted in tremendous changes of the discipline.

2.4 Introduction of Soviet Union librarianship (1950-1960)

In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the two world camps confronted against each other because of
the Cold War. China was blockaded by the West. The communication with the libraries in other