Page 38 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

CHENG Huanwen & LIU Jiaqin / The development of library science in China in an international perspective 037

3.3 Theoretical aspect: Chinization of international ideology

Last year, on the 25th anniversary of the release of the Public Library Manifesto by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and IFLA, the Public
Libraries Section of the IFLA held activities and the Chinese library community also took action.
At the threshold of the new millennium, the New Library Movement and studies on rights of public
libraries in the Chinese library community facilitated the spread and practice of values of freedom
and equality in the Public Library Manifesto in China (Cheng, 2007; Cheng, Pan, & Zhang, 2011).
In the new century, the Chinese socialist core values—freedom, equality, justice and rule of law
enjoy popular support, which becomes the hot topics and interests of study of the library science.
Many librarians take active part in the drafting and formulation of relative laws and standards
as well as policy-making consulting. They have contributed their academic wisdom to the
development of national public culture and especially public libraries.
In the recent decade, guided by the national policy of “guaranteeing basic public cultural rights”,
scholars in the library community participate in investigation and formulation of a series of public
libraries standards, including the Standard of Public Library Construction (construction standard
108-2008), Specifications of Library Reference Service (WH/T 71-2005), Specifications of
Community Library Service (WH/T 73-2016) and Specifications of Public Library Service (GB/T
28220-2011). These are new academic contributions to institutional innovation of public libraries.
The Public Cultural Service Guarantee Law of the People’s Republic of China and the
Public Library Law of the People’s Republic of China enacted in recent years signifies that the
development of public libraries in China in the new century strides into unprecedented golden age.
There is no doubt that the most energetic and productive research in the Chinese library science in
the new millennium is in theory and practice of public libraries.
In the Chinization of core values of international public libraries and practice of socialist
core values in public libraries, innovative theories and practice spring up in the Chinese library
community, which is worthy to communicate with other countries. Among them the most influential
is “ten innovations in the development of Chinese public libraries in the 21st century” (Cheng,
Peng, Gao, & Liu, 2018): the Borrow Anywhere, Return Anywhere (BARA) service launched in
2000, the plan of the city of the library in 2003, nationwide reading in 2006, 24-hour self-service
library on streets in 2008, free service and Library+ in 2011 and the establishment of public library
service system in 2013. The innovations embody academic wisdom of scholars, which not only
guides the developmental trend of international public libraries, but also makes the theory and
practice of Chinese public libraries the leader of world library science research.

4 Prospects

After the over one hundred years’ development by learning from the West, the Chinese