Page 23 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

022
022 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.13, 2021

paid to the practical sources of the theory. To associate DU and LIU’s library research and practice,
we can find that DU’s theory was formed after he successively served as Director of the Sun Yat-
sen Library of Guangdong Province, Fudan University Library, Nanyang University Library, Sun
Yat-sen University Library and Jiaotong University Library; and LIU’s theory were formed after
he served as Director of the Compilation Department of Peking Library, University of Nanking
Library and Northwestern University Library. WANG Zizhou put it that DU “has made outstanding
contribution to the development of the system of Chinese library science research and keeping
abreast of the world level” [9]165 . ZHOU Wenjun and WANG Hongyuan believed that DU, LIU and
WANG Zhongmin had made unparalleled historic achievements in their professional fields and
[10]
deemed LIU “one of the founders of modern and contemporary library science in China” .
Although people spoke highly of the theory of essential elements, they often simplified or
even misinterpreted it. Re-examining the theory of elements, we can find two different theories,
one is for library, and the other is for librarianship. Different from the theory of TAO Shuxian
which referred to the library, DU’s theory referred to librarianship, which was the “trinity” of the
theoretical foundation of librarianship and showed the changes of emphasis from books, to methods
[11]
and then to people (readers) . Such advanced ideas were born ninety years ago, which were out
of reach of contemporary humanistic library science. The four essential elements proposed by
LIU were for the library, while the five essential elements were for librarianship. His contribution
lied in that he advanced DU’s theory by making the elements the formal research objects and
incorporated them into basic theories of library science. The theory of elements examines library
practice from an analytical perspective. From DU’s holistic “trinity” theory to the idea considering
the library and librarianship as a system under the influence of systematic scientific thinking in the
1980s, the theoretical framework of “essential element-system” based on essential elements was
built in library science.
The theory of essential elements, the “theory of contradictions” and the “theory of laws” (the
latter two theories formed between the 1950s and 1980s) are called the three major academic
thoughts in the ideological system of modern library science in China. The theory of laws
originated from Fundamentals of Library Science (jointly edited by Peking University and Wuhan
University and published in 1981), which put forward that “library science is a science that studies
the origin, development, organizational form and working laws of librarianship”. However, it is
inappropriate to define it as the “theory of laws”, as all sciences study laws (there is no exception).
The laws and contradictions cannot correspond. Exactly speaking, the theory should be categorized
as the “theory of librarianship”, which is the result of the development of the theory of essential
elements. The theory of contradictions has its root in philosophical contradictions and the
discussion of basic contradictions of library work. Its contribution lies in that it found two major
activities or phenomena in library practice, which are collection activity/phenomenon and user
service activity/phenomenon. These are the two focuses of all library work. It is better to say that
library science is to deal with the relationship between collection and utilization instead of solving