| "Policy and strategy is the life of the party" This concept was stressed by Comrade Mao Zedong in 1948 when the party was faced with the new situation and tasks in the new period. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, China managed her society with the party's policies, not with laws. Even today after 30 years'of reform and opening up, with the promotion of "rule of law" to build a legalized society, this tradition still dominates in the national social life and it is still the primary means to manage all the social causes including librarianship. The local rules, administrative regulations and other rules in librarianship field issued since the reform and opening up are still at work within the framework of the party's directive policies and social management policies of governments of all levels. Therefore, the study of contemporary librarianship can only be achieved on the basis of the thorough research of the party's political guiding ideology and the government's directive policies in the fields of economy, culture, education and science and technology.The understanding and study of policies both in librarianship and social environment requires appropriate scientific methods. Policy Sciences, since its establishment by American scholars in 1950s, with the development of half a century, has developed into a mature subject with a solid foundation, professional systems and various research methods, and has been widely applied in the practice and subject research of politics, economy, military fields. China's librarianship circles started to research on the librarianship policies from the 1980's, attempting to study it with theories and methods of policy sciences, with the expectation of strengthening the research on librarianship with the help of policy sciencs. However, such researches haven't produced many achievements and those acchievements still lack depth.This paper takes a panoramic view of China's librarianship policies during 1978-2008, with the models and methods of policy sciences as the research tools. The author conducts a comprehensive study and review of the policy bodies, policy objects and policy environments in the development of librarianship.The first chapter "Introduction" defines the research background, summarizes and comments on the domestic and foreign researches on librianship policies with the methods of policy sciences, and introduces the thesis topic, research methods and the significance of research. Chapter Two is a synthetical introduction to China's librianship during 1978-2008. It introduces the features of China's librarianship development in different stages and of its overall developments. The author thinks that after the basic line of reform and opening up was established at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, with the guidance of the ideology of "emancipate the mind, seek truth from facts and unite as one in looking to the future", the policy system has been formed in the librarianship in conformity with the objective laws of librarianship through internal reform and opening up, and the scientific and objective development of librarianship has gradually been realized, thus enhancing the efficiency and benefits of the librarianship.In terms of text structure, the third, fourth and fifth chapters are the core of the paper.The third chapter comprehensively introduces the social environment.of policies in China's contemporary librarianship, including the development history and the setbacks during 1949-1978, the thirty years after the founding of new China. It probes into the general development of libraries in the early stages of reform and opening up, and the policy changes as well as related factors during 1949-1978. After the reform and opening up, China's librarianship was greatly influenced by the librarianship in the western developed countries with its exemplary and stimulating role, which directly guided the direction of librarianship development in China and the direction of exertions by China's library circles; This chapter also discusses the influence of policies on the policies in librarianship in terms of politics, culture, education and science & technology, based on the real state of China's library system.Chapter Four, based on the main policy-making bodies in China's librarianship, introduces respectively national legislative body, the CPC party committee system, the administrative system, library associations and other coordinating bodies, individual libraries, the types and features of the policies of librarianship made by these organizations.Chapter Five "Policy Objects of Librarianship", according to the policy-making in China's librarianship, summarizes and analyzes the related policies within 30 years in management, document resources development, human resources construction, technology development, architecture, thus making clear the evolution of policies in various fields after the research, and accordingly concludes the characteristics in the policy changing process.Chapter Six is devoted to empirical study.Library legislation is the key issue in the policy building of current librarianship. It is also one of the hot issues about which China's library circles are most concerned in the new century. Combined with the field of research in this paper, this chapter studies the problems in China's library legislation with the method of policy process. According to models of policy process categorization, this chapter discusses the six stages in China's library legislation process, namely, the proposition of the legislation, the establishment of the laws, the implementation of the laws, monitoring of laws, assessment of legal effect, revision of laws and termination of laws. This chapter also summarizes and conducts a comprehensive research of legislature in terms of opinions at different stages, background of legislation, theoretical research of legislation and legislation process. The author suggests that China's current library laws are in conformity with the objective reality of China's librarianship development in terms of legislature foundation, legislature procedure and legislature progress, and the legislative efforts made by the library circles and society in Library Laws are worthy of recognition.The Conclusion part is divided into three sections:the view of social environment which China's librarianship is in from the perspective of system construction, Scientific Concept of Development being the basic security for the development of librarianship, and the emphasis in the policy construction of China's librarianship. These three sections are also the author's general understanding of policy development in China's librarianship since 1978.The author proposes that the basis of policy-making lies in the system design of librarianship, and that problems in the development of librarianship be solved on this basis. And the current concept of "building a harmonious society" with "Scientific Concept of Development" provides a favorable environment for the future of librarianship. In the future when China's economic power will be promoted and all social causes will be developed including education, science, culture and health, policies of librarianship need to be examined, improved and optimized, and the policy system of librarianship based on laws needs to be quickly developed.Research suppositions are to realize the application of "policy sciences" in the research of "librarianship" through the theories and methods of policy sciences, combined with the practice of building our contemporary librarianship and library theories; to realize the organic combination of "policy contents" with "policy forms" in the research process of library policies; to conduct an overall summary of the policies in all the fields of China's current librarianship in terms of research fields; in vertical policy integration, to carry out an orderly analysis of the policy evolution of librarianship in the past 30 years; in terms of research targets, to realize the demonstration of value of librarianship policies during 1978-2008 to serve as a link between the past and the future; in terms of system, to realize the combination of theory and practice.However, the various suppositions can only be partially realized owing to the limatations in terms of the researcher's theoretical level, professional background, research time, research methods, the completeness of availabel materials, the criterion by which the researcher uses and abandons the materials. Moreover, in some individual problems, the researcher often finds himself in a difficult situation of sorting out all the materials, and often feels the pressure to work harder in the future in this fields the researcher attempts to explore. Owing to all the defects in the paper, the author always welcome peer criticism from teachers and researchers alike.
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