On Jiangxi Provincial Library During The Republican Era Of China

During the Republican Era of China, the public library cause began to spring up inJiangxi province. In1920, Jiangxi Provincial Library was prepared and set up2yearslater. From1920s to1940s, Jiangxi Provincial Library went through all kinds of hard-ships and difficulties. It sprung up, developed, moved, and restored, and then it wastaken over. During the process, it adopted domestic and international managementmode and soft management, which exerted violent attack on the intrinsic collectionstructure in Jiangxi province, boost the modernization of Jiangxi library, and played asignificantly greater role in propagating advanced culture and promoting cultureexchange.This thesis mainly gives a detailed analysis and exposition on the ProvincialLibrary’s opening, building construction, stages of development, features of housedbooks, techniques of literature classification, characteristics of management. Thisthesis can be divided into9parts:The first part is the preface, which expounded the reasons for selecting this topic,made clear the research significance and research means of Jiangxi Provincial Library,and introduced the research content briefly. This part looked back at academic historyof Jiangxi Provincial Library study, and pointed out that the value of study was to playback the fact of history, which helped us recognize the objective value of the establishment of Jiangxi Provincial Library. Then this part elaborated the acquisition ofmaterials, and indicated its innovation and limitations in study.The second part analyzed the background of setting up Jiangxi Public Library,official premises construction at Baihuazhou, the developing course of JiangxiProvincial Library. Jiangxi Public Library was set up in a special circumstance. Theconstruction of new building at Baihuazhou accelerated the development andmodernization of Jiangxi librarianship. During the Republican Era, Jiangxi ProvincialLibrary experienced4stages: pioneering stage, new building stage, war resistancestage, and postwar restoring stage. During the pioneering stage, Jiangxi ProvincialLibrary was prepared for nearly2years and then it opened to readers. FirstRevolutionary Civil War affected the quantity and quality of library collection. Duringthe new building stage, new building was approved to be constructed, and the quantity of library collection increased largely. However, the social situation at that timeaffected the operation of Jiangxi Provincial Library. With great effort of librarians,bibliographical service and reader service still developed. During the war-resistancestage, Jiangxi Provincial Library moved southward under provincial government’sorder. On the way, great loss happened. The situation aggravated during the war. In1945, Japan surrendered, which facilitated Jiangxi Provincial Library to move backNanchang and to rebuild. The Third Revolutionary Civil War affected this library. Thehoused collection scale and quality could not be equal to before. Until Nanchang wastaken over, its collection and library building was retained.The third part analyzed the characteristics of collection in Jiangxi ProvincialLibrary and elaborated the sorts of collected books, which showed the proportion ofcollected Chinese-foreign books. The distribution of publications promoted academicexchange at that time objectively, which facilitated the masses to make use ofcollected books. Great amount of collected magazines and periodicals helped peopleto get the facts of situation and promoted literacy on a mass scale. The preservation ofrare ancient books kept the cultural continuity, which became its glamour gradually.The fourth part discussed the document organization and techniques, andrepresented the adoption situation of Dewey system, old and new library classification,and card files. The appearance of different bibliographical tools greatly facilitated thelibrarians and readers to use.The fifth part analyzed the organization structure of Jiangxi Provincial Library,sort out the department setup and the development of library committee and libraryassociation. These indicated that the department setup developed toward scientificdirection.The sixth part analyzed the qualities of librarians, including curators and staff.The chief leading cadres, such as Wang Jingshe, Yang Licheng, Ouyang Zujing, FanWenbin, Li Rongsheng, became the principal figures in the history of Jiangxi library.With the efforts of cadres and staffs, the librarianship in Jiangxi province waspromoted.The seventh part analyzed the expenditure situation of Jiangxi Provincial Libraryand indicated the sources of funds, including government budget appropriation, bondsand funds on hand, and social specialized donation, etc. The allocation of librarybudget, such as expenses of purchasing books, clerical cost, salaries, was greatlyaffected by current political situation. The bookkeeping in Jiangxi Provincial Librarywas developed at the same time. The eighth part elaborated different rules and regulations internally andexternally, concluded the main content, and analyzed the characteristics of rules andregulations in different years. It pointed out the extent of authority and responsibilities,the rights and duties of readers, the collection and arrangement of books, theborrowing rules, etc. There were several characteristics in library rules, such asfocusing on borrowing, coping readers’requirement flexibly, defining the businessrules, and catering to internal and external rules, etc.The ninth part is the epilogue, which indicates the roles Jiangxi ProvincialLibrary played in modern Jiangxi librarianship. It is worth using for reference fromnearly30years’ developing experience. Its remnants are fetching in more and morescholars from home and abroad up to now.2appendices are added in the final of thispaper as supplement.Through cross-interdisciplinary studies and analysis with different ways, thisthesis tries to objectively present the state of development of Provincial Libraryduring the Republican Era of China, and exhibit a viewpoint on its specialty inperspective, in order to make clear the contribution which the Provincial Library hadmade, in the hope of providing some reference for the development of currentProvincial Library in Jiangxi.