Martha C. Leung and Michael A. Davis

Abstract: Analyzes the development of elementary and secondary school libraries in Taiwan from the 1950s through the 1980s. The study demonstrates the parallels between school library progress and the advance of the Taiwanese economy. Government surveys of school libraries are closely examined, with relevant data presented. At this time there are some outstanding schools and school libraries in Taiwan, and there are some very weak examples as well. Wide disparities are found between schools with excellent facilities and those with poor facilities. Education of school librarians has not kept up with growth of the school libraries. Library use by students is minimal, largely because teaching style still depends on memorization of lectures. Now that the national economy is strong, the attention of government and of the educational establishment is focusing on means of improving the library situation in schools.

 Introduction

Taiwan (The Republic of China) is a sub–tropical island nation about 100 miles east of the Chinese mainland. The main island — called Taiwan or Formosa — is about 14,000 square miles in area, somewhat smaller than Denmark, about the size of Vancouver Island or West Virginia. The Republic of China includes a number of smaller island groups, one of which is known as the Pescadores (or Penghu), and two other more famous ones: Quemoy and Matsu. Chinese emigration to the islands began in the 12th century. Large scale emigration occurred during the late 17th century when China came under Manchurian rule [1]. On 8 May 1895, under the provision of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Taiwan was ceded to Japan. Taiwan was returned to Chinese rule in September 1945 [2]. In 1949, Taiwan became the seat of the national government of the Republic of China when the communists took over the Chinese mainland [3]. This paper will trace the stages of economic development in Taiwan from the 1950s to the 1980s and compare this development to that of the school libraries. Taiwan offers a spectrum of economic development; within the course of 40 years, it has risen from poverty to relative affluence. In 1989 its GNP per capita ranked fourth in the world. From 1952 to 1988, the GNP grew at an average annual rate of 8.94 percent, or, if the factor of population growth is figured in, 6.40 percent per capita [4].

 Economic Conditions in the 1950s and 1960s

When the national government moved to Taiwan in 1949, the island group was a remote undeveloped province with about 6.6 million inhabitants [5] who were mainly farmers and fishermen. From 1950 Taiwan was under the protection of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and received U.S. military aid [6]. During the two decades immediately following, Taiwan enjoyed steady economic growth. This improvement can be detected in the areas of GNP, per capita GNP, agriculture, industry, and service industries. The following table shows the average annual economic growth of Taiwan from 1952 to 1970 [7].

TABLE 1
AVERAGE ECONOMIC GROWTH RATES

The only area in steady decline is agriculture. As a society changes from an agricultural to an industrial-based economy, that is the expected phenomenon. Two other aspects of economic growth are income distribution and inflation rates. When there is an increase in the disparity of wealth distribution, the society becomes more volatile. Through history, high disparity of wealth distribution has been one of the major causes of revolutions; while decrease of disparity brought peace and prosperity. The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) of Taiwan presents two methods of calculating income distribution:

The first, the Gini coefficient method, reveals the degree of inequality in the distribution of wealth — the lower the coefficient, the more even the distribution of wealth .... In the second method, households are divided into five categories according to income, which are individually averaged. The ratio of the average income of the first or lowest income category to the fifth or highest income category reveals the degree of disparity in the distribution of wealth, with a high quotient indicating a great disparity. [8]

TABLE 2
DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME

Inflation rate is a good indicator of the soundness of an economy. “Taiwan suffered from severe inflation during World War II and the five years after its conclusion in 1945. Inflation was slowly brought under control in the 1950s.” [9] Inflation declined from the 1950s through the 1960s. The wholesale price index fell from 8.87% in 1952 to 2.0% in 1970; and the consumer price index fell from 9.84% to 3.4 % in the same period [10].

In 1965, the United States discontinued economic aid to Taiwan because “it was felt that Taiwan's thriving industries, sound currency, and rising standard of living had placed its economy on a self-sufficient foundation.” [11] After just 15 years of foreign aid, Taiwan had evolved from a Third World country to a self–sufficient developing country.

Having perused the economic conditions of Taiwan during 1950–1970, we will now examine the conditions of school libraries during the same period. During the 1950s, the illiteracy rate was 42 percent; during the 1960s this rate fell to below 20 percent [12]. In 1957, Lai made a comparison among educational institutions in Taiwan for the years 1946 and 1956 [13]. The number of schools increased in all categories: public elementary schools from 1130 to 1399, high schools from 214 to 249, and higher education institutions from four to 17.

In the same article, Lai also reported that in 1955 most high school libraries owned collections of 5,000–15,000 volumes. Lai listed 21 high schools with library collections of 10,000 volumes or more. Of the 21, only one was a private high school, the rest being provincial establishments. Eight were located in Taipei, three in Taichung, three in Kaohsiung, two in Taiwan, two in Chang Hwa, one in Hsin Chu, one in Chia Yee, and one in Keelung.

In December 1960, the Library Association of China sent out a survey to all the school libraries. The returns were published in the 25 July 1961 issue of the Bulletin of the Association [14]. A total of 63 high schools responded. These could not have been all the high schools in Taiwan because some of the names included in Lai’s survey in 1956 did not appear in the 1961 survey, but they did appear in a later survey (1968). This means that the 1961 survey was not definitive; however, some useful data were gathered. The information solicited included: number of students, volumes in the library, magazine titles, newspaper titles, previous year’s acquisition in volumes, number of library workers, number of library rooms and seating capacity, classification method used, hours of operation, and circulation regulations. The highest enrollment was 6,479 students and the lowest was 283. The most volumes in any collection was 30,939 and the least was 5,120. The greatest number of magazine subscriptions was 216, the least was eight. Newspaper subscriptions ranged from 33 to four. The highest number of volumes acquired during the previous year was 4,164 and the lowest was 32.

The highest seating capacity was in the high school with 190 seats for 758 students (25 percent seating capacity) and the lowest was the school with 16 seats for 1,698 students (less than 1 percent seating capacity). The longest hours of operation was 13 hours a day, and the shortest was three hours and 20 minutes a day.

Circulation regulations varied widely. The most number of books a student could check out at one time was three and the least was one. The longest time a student could keep a book out was unlimited time and the shortest time was three days. There were some libraries that would not let students charge out books.

The highest number of library workers was five and the lowest was one. However, it was not clear whether these workers were professionally trained or not, or whether they were full–time or part–time.

In the 8 December 1968 issue of the Bulletin of the Library Association of China, there was another survey published, reporting on 322 high schools [15] of the 566 high schools in Taiwan [16]. In this survey, two useful categories appeared that were not in the 1961 survey: circulation statistics and annual budget. Out of 322 responses only 11 schools gave their names and addresses; and 50 answered only half of the survey questions. The highest enrollment was 7,260 and the lowest was 104. The most volumes in the school library collection was 43,848 and the lowest was 133. One school reported 1,760 periodical subscriptions; but this may have been an error because no such number was given again in any later reports. Most likely the highest number of subscriptions was 400, while the lowest was one (42 libraries left this item blank). The most newspaper titles subscribed to was 67 and the lowest was one (38 libraries left this item blank). The most volumes acquired in previous year was 4,420 and the least was 20, with 136 libraries not responding.

The highest circulation reported in the 1968 survey was 180,000 and the lowest was three (the latter figure may have resulted from a misunderstanding). The highest seating capacity was 150 seats for 839 students (17.8 percent); the lowest seating capacity was reported by a school that had only four seats for a student body of 4,339. The longest weekly period of operation reported was 14 hours and the shortest was one hour. The highest annual budget was NT$150,000 (US$3,750) and the lowest was NT$500 (US$12.50).

To compare some of the findings of the two surveys, all measures reported by the leading schools showed increases except for seating capacity, which fell from a high of 25 percent in 1961 to a high of 17.8 percent in 1968. Evidently the 1968 report brought responses from at least one very small school, which led to extremely low figures in several categories.

From these surveys, one can see that school library conditions in Taiwan were similar to its economic conditions; both were at an embryonic stage. In December 1961 during the ninth annual meeting of the Library Association of China, “Standards for High School Libraries” were established. These standards were then published in the 16 Dec 1962 issue of the Bulletin of the Association, [17] five years before the second survey discussed above. The dismal condition of school library development was summarized by Kaser:

The bleak condition of school library development is perhaps best reflected by the fact that of an estimated 550 workers in secondary school libraries in the 1965 school year, only one held a library science degree, and only about one out of seven had received summer workshop training. Bleaker still is the fact that in the more than 2,000 elementary schools in Taiwan, there was no degreed staff at all, and only seven workers had been trained in summer workshops. Surely school library development will be a challenging burden for Chinese educators in the years immediately ahead. [18]

 Economic Conditions in the 1970s

During the 1970s the Taiwanese economy encountered some difficulties. Because Taiwan lacks natural resources, the oil crises of the decade hurt greatly. Taiwan registered three years of net trade deficits, in 1973, 1974, and 1980. These trade deficits were caused by “the oil crises and ensuing international economic recession.” [19] Whatever deficit Taiwan might have suffered in trade during this decade, they made up for in fiscal surpluses and instead of turning to foreign aid, they turned to domestic savings deposits. The per capita annual income reached US$1,000 in 1976 which was an 800 percent increase from 1956 [20].

TABLE 3
AVERAGE ECONOMIC GROWTH RATES , 1971–1980 (%) [21]

As shown above, because of the oil crises and international economic recession Taiwan's economy experienced a downward slide (except for the GNP categories). Compared with figures of the 1961–1970 period (see Table 1), the growth rate of commodity exports fell from 22.43% to 17.20%. The agricultural growth rate fell sharply, from 4.52% to 1.79%. Even industry and services fell slightly from 13.74% to 12.70%, and 9.28% to 9.04% respectively. The only area that registered a decline which would be a welcome trend was the income distribution disparity. The Gini coefficient dropped from 0.312 in 1975 to 0.303 in 1980; and the ratio of earnings fell from 4.3 to 4.2 [22].

However, during the same time two significant increases were recorded. The first rise was in population: in 1972, Taiwan’s estimated total population was above 15 million [23]. And inflation rate (consumer price index) “climbed to 11.08% in the 1970s due to two energy crises.” [24] It should also be noted that “in spite of two energy crises and world economic recession, the average unemployment rate never exceeded 1.5% during the 1970s.” [25] During 1978–1979 the Taiwanese economy rallied. Commodity export growth reached 35.70% — the highest growth rate in the world. During those two years, Taiwanese trade reached US$30 billion and Taiwan became the 21st trading nation in the world. Then in 1980, just as the per capita income reached US$2,000, oil prices rose (because of the Iran–Iraq war) and caused the wholesale price index to rise to 22% and consumer price index to 19%. Taiwan developed a trade deficit of over US$3 billion.

 School Libraries in the 1970s

A survey was made in 1973 by the Department of Social Education of the National Taipei Normal University on school libraries in the city of Taipei. It will not be discussed here, because of its limited coverage [26]. In 1980 Nancy Ou–lan Hu made a national survey of school libraries [27]. This survey included 188 senior high schools and 183 vocational high schools, 626 junior high schools and 2,380 elementary schools. Questionnaires were sent out asking for information up to the end of December 1979. There were 2,007 replies, representing 84 percent of the elementary schools and 84 percent of the high schools polled. The following is a summary of Hu’s findings:

1. Facilities
Of the 2,007 elementary schools that responded 1,124 schools had a library; this represents 59.13%. The other 777 schools (40.87%) had no library facilities. If those who did not respond are also counted as without facilities, then about half the elementary schools had no library facilities. Among the high schools there were 283 or 35.6% with libraries, 512 or 64.4% with only a reading room, and about one–fifth of the high schools had no library facilities at all (assuming non–respondents to have none). Among the elementary schools in Taiwan there was one library seat for every 27 pupils. In junior high schools there was one seat per 18 pupils, and in vocational and senior high schools there was one seat for every 12 students.

2. Personnel
According to education laws passed in May 1979, there should be one full–time teacher in charge of the library in each high school, and depending on need, appropriate assistants should be provided. The Hu survey of 1980 showed that there were 63 full–time workers in the 2,007 elementary schools (one worker per 24,928 pupils). High school library workers fared a little better. There were 566 full–time workers, or one per 1,803 students.

As schools employ professionally trained teachers to teach, so should school libraries employ professionally trained librarians to run the libraries. But according to the responses from the elementary schools, only three of their library workers had library degrees; this represents 0.21%. Another 51 persons (3.64%) had been trained in special vocational library schools, and 214 (15.25%) had attended short training sessions. No library training at all was reported for 1,403 (80.9%) of the workers.

Among the high school workers 14 had library degrees, this represents 2.36 percent of the staff. Seventeen persons (2.87 percent) had graduated from special vocational library schools; 270 (45.53%) had attended short library training sessions, and 292 (49.23%) had no library training at all.

3. Collections
In 1979 each elementary school student had access to an average of four volumes and 11 periodical titles. In high schools, the averages were a little better. Each high school student had access to an average of five volumes and 42 periodical titles.

4. Budget
The average allocation per student was NT$9.00. Each school had an average annual budget of NT$62,807 (US$1,507).

In her conclusion, Hu pushed for better standards and improvement in all areas of school library operation. She also outlined eight specific programs of reform:

1. Change the storehouse image of the library to a real learning center;
2. Establish a library annual budget;
3. Establish laws and standards for school libraries modeled after Japan and Western countries;
4. Establish schedules for program evaluation of school libraries;
5. Extend library collections to include all media and new technology;
6. Employ professional librarians and provide sufficient qualified supporting staff;
7. Have open stacks to encourage library use by both faculty and students; and,
8. Encourage school library initiative to cooperate with other educational functions and activities.

In addition to this comprehensive 1980 survey there were studies done of various kinds of school libraries, and articles and reports on several aspects of school library operations. In 1976, the whole first volume of Library Books and Libraries (Tu shu yu to shu kuan) was devoted to school libraries. School library development was beginning to be a major concern among professional librarians and educators during the decade of the 1970s.

 Economic Conditions in the 1980s

During the 1980s Taiwan registered further trade surpluses. After 1983, trading growth reached 45.8%. The population grew to 15 million and the iliteracy rate fell to 6%. Individual savings reached 40.31%, the highest in the world. The per capita annual income was US$5,000 [28]. Between 1981 and 1988 GNP grew 7.95%, per capita GNP grew 13.01%, commodity exports rose 15.61%, agriculture grew only 0.99%, industries grew 7.09% and services 8.14% [29].

Taiwan experienced a 45.8 percent trade surplus after 1983, but in 1988, because of growing international protectionist sentiments, there was a 41.4 percent negative growth [30]. As a result all areas of economic growth except per capita GNP declined during the period 1981-1988. Nevertheless, Taiwan managed to maintain fiscal surpluses and high foreign exchange reserves. Despite setbacks in foreign trade in 1988, Taiwan became the 13th leading trading nation in the world [31]. During the 1980s income distribution had a slight upward trend: the Gini coefficient dropped from 0.386 in 1981 to 0.323 in 1987, and the ratio of income rose from 4.2 to 4.7 [32]. The R.0.C. Yearbook noted that “concern has been expressed that this incipient increase in the disparity of wealth distribution may continue to grow. The increase has been accompanied by the emergence of certain phenomena creating social inequalities.” [33] However, social inequalities are natural phenomena that exist in all societies:

Another factor that must be considered is that when a people’s standard of living is below the point of satisfying even daily needs, achievement of an equitable distribution of wealth is a significant social goal. But once basic life necessities can be satisfied, an uneven distribution of wealth can be viewed as a healthy phenomenon. It is a sign that people who have the ability and are willing to take risks can earn a comparatively higher income. Such conditions are a basic prerequisite to stimulating creativity, hard work, and investment; an excessively equal distribution of income punishes the diligent and encourages the idle. [34]

As for inflation rates, the period from 1981 to 1988 saw a big drop in both wholesale (-0.50%) and consumer (-2.87%) price indices [35].

This phenomenon represents a “situation of high, inflation–free growth.” [36] Since most documents ended their fiscal reports for their 1989 publication in 1988, and 1990 reports are not yet ready, we can only provide an estimate for 1989:

The DGBAS estimates the economic growth rate for 1989 at 6.8% (7.3% for the first half of the year, 6.5% for the latter half), and the annual growth rate in the GNP at 9.66 percent. The per capita GNP is expected to increase to US$6,273 [37].

Thus, economists expect Taiwan to continue the trend of high inflation–free economic growth.

 School Libraries in the 1980s

Since 1980 there have been annual surveys by various organizations and individuals on school libraries within the boundaries of metropolitan Taipei. According to L.L. Huang, all the surveys showed that in elementary school libraries collections are inadequate, facilities primitive, opening hours limited, and library workers insufficient in number and lacking in professional training. That is why the development of elementary school libraries is slow and the influence they could have on education remains unrealized [38]. In 1985, the National Central Library did a survey of all the school libraries in Taiwan. However, a copy of the final findings has not been located. A survey of 244 school libraries in the metropolis of Taipei was published in the Taipei Municipal Library Newsletter in 1988 [39]. According to the R.O.C. Yearbook 1989 [40] in 1988 there were 168 high schools and 212 vocational schools with a total 653,226 students. Of the 370 high schools, 110 are located in Taipei; and of over 2,000 elementary schools 132 are in Taipei. In this study, which was part of the 1985 survey done by the National Central Library, there were 230 responses out of the 244 surveys sent. Hours of operation varied from 88 hours per week to six hours per week. The highest population served including faculty and students was 8,288 persons, and the lowest was 84. The highest number of library workers in one school was 11 and the lowest was one. Out of a total of 415 library workers in 230 school libraries, 26 were trained library workers. The highest seating capacity was 49 percent, in an elementary school with 102 students and 50 seats. The lowest capacities were in six schools reporting no seats for their students. The most spacious library occupied an area of 2,628 square meters, but the highest library space per student ratio belonged to the high school library that had 1,646 square meters of floor space for 1,361 students (1.21 square meters per student). The school that had the smallest library was one with 20 square meters of floor space; that school had a population of 4,017 students. The most volumes in a collection was housed in an elementary school — the same school that has the largest library in area, its collection having reached 72,000 volumes. The smallest collection was a mere 400 volumes. The largest subscription list had 677 periodicals; the smallest had none at all (four schools put nothing down for this item). One school subscribed to 50 newspapers, and five schools reported none. Two schools reported the highest annual budgets: NT$500,000 (US$12,500). Thirteen schools did not fill in the budget line, two said their budgets were irregular, and one responded with 0. Clearly there exists a huge disparity between the best and the worst school libraries in Taiwan.

In issue number 40 of the Library Association of China Newsletter there were two reports on the present conditions of Ming Tao High School Library. Lu Shiang–ju’s report [41] gives this description: there are four reading rooms; one resource center with reference and AV materials for different subjects as well as computers for CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction); one periodical room with over 200 titles of periodicals and over 10 titles of newspapers; a cultural center with replicas of the Imperial Library, Chinese inventions, and artifacts of antiquity; a center for Chinese history with replicas of old documents; a microcomputer center with 32 workstations; a center for media production; an art center for exhibition of students’ and teachers’ works; a conference room with 300 seats and equipment to show films and slides; and a natural science center with exhibits. In the circulation area there are five computer terminals: three for library staff use and two for library users. Students and teachers may use the two computers for information retrieval. Lu said that this is only the first step in school library automation.

In the article written by Chang Shi-wei [42], the author described some of the facilities in Chung Shan Girls' School Library:

On the second floor of the library, there are six research rooms with reference materials for six different subjects: physics, chemistry, Chinese literature, English, geography and history, and mathematics. Among the reference materials are audio and video cassettes. These materials are for both teachers and students. Teachers may use the materials for class preparation and students may use the materials for review or self–study. Teachers are on duty in these research rooms to assist students in their educational needs. On the third floor of the library, there are two AV rooms with audio and video tapes for both educational and recreational use. Both teachers and students can check these materials out or use them right there in the rooms.

From these descriptions of two high school libraries in Taiwan, one can see that their facilities, equipment, and reference materials are very modern. But library use is another matter.

In the Winter 1984 issue of Journal of Educational Media and Library Science, Lai Chao–yen reported a survey done on the use of school libraries by 494 eighth–grade students in Yunlin County. This survey made the following shocking discoveries [43]:

1. Fifty–four percent of the respondents have never checked out a book from their school libraries, and 12% of the respondents did not know they could check out books; 43% admitted that they did not know how to check out a library book;
2. Seventy percent would never think of going to the library to seek solutions if they encounter problems;
3. Eighteen percent of the respondents often go to bookstores to read; 45% buy reference materials from bookstores.

The author suggested three reasons for student ignorance about libraries in general and school libraries in particular. The first reason was the pressure of promotion. Competition for promotion from one class to another has always been keen. It is especially so in grades six, nine, and 12. Therefore, students spend most of their time attending “cram schools” after regular school everyday and after cram school, they have to do homework for both schools. That is why there is little time for extracurricular reading. The second reason was teaching style. Because the curriculum includes such a voluminous collection of data and facts, it appears easiest for the teachers to lecture and let the students memorize everything. The last reason according to Lai was that no educational unit has ever valued the school library. It was not until recent years that both junior and senior high schools realized the importance of school libraries in education.

 Conclusions

We have shown that during the 1950s and 1960s, when Taiwan’s economic conditions were still of a Third World character, educational conditions and especially school library conditions were in an embryonic stage. Very few surveys were done and those that were done were primitive and their concerns provincial. Then, as the economic situation improved during the 1970s school library conditions were upgraded. Standards began to be established, modeled after American and Canadian criteria. Finally, during the 1980s, with economic conditions comparable to those of the First World, educators have begun to have a global view, not only of the present but towards the future. Systematic and organized surveys are being made. Standards are being revised. Educators are exploring causes and solutions for their educational systems when problems are detected.

We have viewed an expression of Maslow’s theory that human beings have to satisfy their basic physical needs before they will go on to higher levels of mental and spiritual gratifications. Economic conditions in a country must reach a certain level before national attention can focus on improvement of school libraries. School libraries in turn have their impact on national development by enhancing the quality of education.

 References

1. Official Associated Press Almanac, 1974 (Maplewood, New Jersey: Hammond Almanac, Inc., 1973), p. 491.

2. Statesman’s Year–Book 1990–1991 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1990), pp. 366–71.

3. Kaleidoscope of Current World Data (Santa Barbara, California: ABC–Clio, 1990), s.v. “Taiwan.”

4. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989 (Taipei: Kwang Hwa Publishing Company, 1989), p. 261.

5. “Seen Through 40 Years of Taiwan,” Walk Through the Past, Return to the Future (Taipei: Tien Hsia, 1988), p. 83. (In Chinese)

6. Official Associated Press Almanac 1974, p. 492.

7. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 261.

8. Ibid., pp. 262–263.

9. Ibid., p. 263.

10. Ibid., p. 264.

11. David E. Kaser, C. Walter Stone, and Cecil K. Byrd, Library Development in Eight Asian Countries (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1969), p. 72.

12. Walk Through the Past, p. 84, p. 88.

13. Lai Yung–hseung, “School Libraries in the Republic of China,” Bulletin of the Library Association of China 8 (31 October 1957): 13–14. (In Chinese)

14. “Survey of High School Libraries, December 1960,” Bulletin of the Library Association of China 12 (25 July 1961): 33–36. (In Chinese)

15. “Survey of the Present Conditions of High School Libraries,” Bulletin of the Library Association of China 20 (8 December 1968): 12-32. (In Chinese)

16. Kaser, p. 74.

17. “Standards for High School Libraries,” Bulletin of the Library Association of China 14 (16 December 1962): 3–6. (In Chinese)

18. Kaser, pp. 75–76.

19. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 262.

20. Walk Through the Past, p. 91.

21. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 261.

22. Ibid., p. 263.

23. Walk Through the Past, p. 90.

24. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 263.

25. Ibid., p. 264.

26. Tana Man–Chen Lin, “Discussion on the Development of School Libraries in Our Country,” Journal of Library and Information Science 6–1 (April 1980): 184–205. (Text in Chinese, abstract in English)

27. Nancy Ou–lan Hu, “A Survey of School Libraries in Taiwan,”Journal of Library and Information Science 7–1 (April 1981): 72–98. (Text in Chinese, abstract in English)

28. Walk Through the Past, pp. 93-95.

29. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 261.

30. Ibid., p. 262.

31. Walk Through the Past, p. 94.

32. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 262.

33. Ibid., p. 263.

34. Loc. cit.

35. Ibid., p. 264.

36. Loc. cit.

37. Ibid., p. 265.

38. L.L. Huang, “A Study of the Attitudes Toward Librarianship of Working Staffs in the Libraries of Taipei Municipal Primary Schools,” Journal of Library and Information Science 13 (April 1987): 72. (Text in Chinese, abstract in English)

39. National Central Library, “A Survey of School Libraries in Taipei,” Taipei Municipal Library Newsletter 6–2 (1988): 34–60 (In Chinese)

40. Republic of China Yearbook, 1989, p. 379.

41. Lu Shiang–ju, “The Present Condition of Ming Tao High School Library,” Library Association of China Newsletter 40 (1985): 29–32. (In Chinese)

42. Chang Shi–wei, “From Effective Education to Implementation of the New Curricular Standards — a Focus on High School Library Operation,” Bulletin of the Library Association of China36 (2 December 1984): 15–20. (In Chinese)

43. Lai Chao–yen, “The Use of School Libraries of Junior High School Students in Yunlin County: A Study,” Journal of Educational Media and Library Science 21–2 (Winter 1984): 190–198. (Text in Chinese, abstract in English)

Note: Passages from Chinese texts were translated by the authors of this article.

About the Authors

Martha C. Leung is Library Media Specialist at Amherst Central High School, Buffalo, New York. She was born in Shanghai, and studied at the University of Hong Kong. Her doctorate in education is from the State University of New York at Buffalo; she also has master’s degrees in secondary education (Northeastern University) and in library science (Simmons College). Dr. Leung was co–compiler of “Chinese Libraries and Librarianship: An Annotated Bibliography.”

Michael A. Davis is a high school computer teacher in Western New York State. He earned a B.S. in business at Syracuse University, worked in the business world for several years, then turned to education. His M.Ed. is from the State University of New York at Buffalo.