Chapter 33 Section 7 Library Organization and Management in the Republic of China

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the administrative management of the library was subordinate to the Ministry of Education, the central institution in charge of education. The Faculty has ministers, and under it there are left and right ministers to manage library matters.The Qing government also set up learning envoys in each province as a new type of provincial education administrative agency, which was led by the central school department and the provincial governor.There is an Office of Academic Affairs under the Tixue Envoy Division, which is divided into six courses: general affairs, specialized courses, general courses, practical courses, library courses, and accounting courses.Provincial libraries are unified under the leadership of the library department.The Jingshi Library is under the leadership of the academic department.

The Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, and the provisional government was established the following year.Library administration is under the Ministry of Education. In July 1914, the "Official System of the Ministry of Education" was promulgated, which stipulated that the Department of General Affairs was responsible for "construction matters such as schools, libraries, and museums."The Department of Social Education is in charge of "Museum and Library Matters" and "Various Popular Museum and Popular Library Matters" (see "The First Educational Yearbook, Part A, General Overview of Education"). In December 1918, the "Regulations of the Department of Education" stipulated that the General Affairs Department under the General Affairs Department was responsible for "construction of schools, libraries, museums, etc. under the jurisdiction of the Ministry" and "investigation of the establishment of public and private schools, libraries, and museums"; The first department (library and natural history department) under the Education Department is responsible for "Museum Library Matters".The second section (popular section) is in charge of "Popular Library Tour Library Matters".According to this regulation, the Social Education Department of the Ministry of Education in the early period of the Republic of China was responsible for handling matters such as site selection and transfer of books for the Beijing Normal University Library.

In June 1928, the "Amendment to the Organizational Law of the University of the Republic of China" was promulgated, changing the Ministry of Education into a university, canceling the provincial education departments, and dividing the country into several university districts, responsible for the management of educational and academic institutions in various places.It stipulates that the graduate school directly manages national academic institutions, including the National Library.Each university district has set up an education office, which is responsible for public library affairs.After the abolition of the university district, the provincial education department system was restored, and the third department of the education department (that is, the social education department) was stipulated to be responsible for library and museum matters. In the regulations of the county education bureau, it was stipulated that the education bureau was responsible for schools, libraries, museums and other cultural undertakings .

Regarding the establishment and scope of functions of institutions at all levels in the library, there are detailed regulations in the "Revised Library Regulations" and "Library Work Outline" published in 1939.Generally speaking, there are administrative departments: responsible for handling documents, accounting, general affairs, etc.; acquisition and editing department: responsible for purchase, collection, classification and cataloging, etc.; Maps, local literature; reference research: responsible for consultation, research, counseling, etc. In short, the so-called affiliation relationship refers to who manages, who leads, and who allocates funds.

Although the library developed rapidly during the period of the Republic of China, the lack of funds and backward management have always been the key links that plagued the development of the library.Some people pointed out that at that time, the government spent very little money on education, and very little was used for social education, and even less was used for book fees in social education.According to a survey by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education, there were 138 libraries in the province in 1935, with a collection of 930,000 volumes. The budget for that year was 91,182.6 yuan, with an average of 660.7 yuan for each library.Qinghai Provincial Library is 1,800 yuan, and Xikang Provincial Library is only 260 yuan.The book funding of the Jinhua County Filial Piety Education Center in Zhejiang was as low as 16 yuan.The library has a collection of 102 volumes, and most of the collections are old things from the former academy, and most of them are ancient books that do not meet the needs of the times.

University libraries have slightly more funds than public libraries. After the Ministry of Education inspected the schools in Peiping in 1931, they had to admit that “equipment is very lacking, and most libraries are in name only. In terms of funds, salaries often account for more than eight tenths of the budget, while The cost of equipment is less than one-tenth."Peking University’s annual library expenditure is 75,000 yuan. Except for salaries, the administrative cost of other books and equipment is only 15,000 yuan. In 1933, the annual book purchase fee of Jiaotong University library was 24,000 yuan, and Tongji University’s annual book purchase fee was only 16,000 yuan. This shows that !