The Comparative Study On The Modern Library Development Process Between China And America

The Chinese nation created splendid culture in the long history. For thousands of years, the ancient CangShuLou is a major form of the ancient Chinese library based on the traditional economic and linked by despotism. China has a long history, and book collection can be traced to the Xia dynasty, the unique Chinese characteristics collection system had been formed until the late Qing dynasty. At the end of the Qing dynasty, the social maladies increasingly exposed and the social class contradiction became increasingly sharp. Because of the imperialism invasion, the development of national capitalism, and the collapse of feudal economy, China were reduced to the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society step by step. Because the feudal economy was the basis of ancient CangShuLou, the ancient CangShuLou also gradually decline. The Opium War broke out in 1840, China had been pushed into the abyss of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society by the foreign invaders, and China had been also broken the isolated state. Reform movement in the late Qing dynasty tolled the bell for the last several thousand years of feudal CangShuLou of China, unveiled a new chapter in modern China, and opened up a new way for Chinese modern library. In 1904, the first public library of China established in Hunan, Chinese modern library began to grow. At the beginning of 20th centuries Chinese library entered into the modern stage.American library came from private library in colonial era; it entered into the high tide of modern library development from the middle of the nineteenth century. Members library of the 18th century are the predecessor of the modem library in the United States. It laid the foundation of the American public library. The supports of the U.S. government run through the library development, the donation of the rich and the enterprise is one of reason to promote library development. With the rise of the U.S. economy, the American library had rapid development, at the beginning of the twentieth century the United States had become a library activity center of the world, begun to lead the development of library cause of the world.This paper collected materials of building and development of the two countries in the modern library, and referred to the predecessor's research achievements, reviewed the modern library history of the two countries and analyzed the different characteristics of modern library development between two countries, studied their different backgrounds and reasons of the characteristics, discussed the related factors which influenced the development of the library career, and looked into the future of Chinese library development prospects under the new historical conditions, confirmed the important position of the library in the political, economic and cultural construction.The article is divided into four parts: the first part, introduction; the second part, characteristics comparison of the modern library development; the third part, analysis on reasons and backgrounds of the characteristics of the modern library development; the forth part, conclusion and the enlightenment of the development of libraries in China...