Page 45 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

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

held. The People’s Daily published an editorial titled Library Work in the Advancement of Science.
In such a social atmosphere, the theoretical study of library science began to revive. A “wind vane”
or “signpost of historical turning point” [15] of such a revival is LIU Guojun’s paper What is Library
Science (1957). For a long time, many scholars have regarded this paper as a representative work
that advocates the “element theory” of library science research objects, with either approval or
derogatory comments, which is actually a misinterpretation of this paper. LIU Guojun clearly
pointed out in this paper that, “Library science is the science about libraries, that is, the science
that studies the nature and laws of librarianship, and that of their constituent elements.” He also
noted that, “the priority issue of library science lies in studying the role of the library in human
history and its development process, analyzing its elements and mastering their laws. In so doing,
[16]
library science can better serve people’s lives” . It is evident that LIU at this point considered
librarianship in a macro perspective, particularly the “nature and laws”, as the research object of
library science. “Elements Theory” is just one dimension in studying librarianship. Therefore, the
focus of LIU’s research was indeed the core issues in the fundamental theory of library science,
which can be seen as a major breakthrough in the research of fundamental theory. Moreover, it is
of special significance that LIU at this historical point considered “librarianship” as the research
object of library science. In 1956, librarianship was included in the country’s development plan
for “advancing scientific research”. LIU’s paper offered theoretical support for the development
of librarianship from the perspective of fundamental theory of library science. This coincides with
what we today strongly call for in research orientation. That is, the theoretical research of library
science shall serve the major needs of the state and the society, based on national conditions, and
oriented towards solving practical issues.
In the 1960s, the outstanding achievement of the fundamental theoretical research of library
science was HUANG Zongzhong’s proposal of applying the “contradiction theory” in studying the
research object of library science. In 1962, HUANG Zongzhong used the philosophical thought
in MAO Zedong’s On Contradiction to analyze the contradictions of the library, and believed
that “collection and use” of the library was a relationship of unity of opposites, which constituted
library’s special contradictions. HUANG suggested that research on the special contradiction
of the library as the approach for exploring the essence and laws of the library [17] . HUANG’s
theoretical contribution lies in exploring the fundamental theoretical issues of library science
from a philosophical point of view, and developing the research object of library science from the
phenomenon description to the stage of scientific abstraction. This is an original and indigenized
research outcome of China’s theoretical research in library science in this period.
From 1966 to 1976, due to historical reasons, China’s librarianship experienced serious damages
and library science research was consequently interrupted. Although library work and library
science education had been restored to some extent after 1972, in terms of the fundamental theory
of library science, there were no other meaningful research results except for some political- slogan-
style “theories” in the textbooks and handouts compiled by library science educational institutions.