Sensitivity to Foreign Countries: A Comparison of U.S. Library Literature about China and China’s about the United States, 1980-1989.

The 1970s and 1980s witnessed increased contact between China and the United States in library-related activities. As a result, library literature written in each country about the other has grown dramatically. This study contributes to an understanding of these exchanges and cooperation by providing a quantitative and comparative study of U.S. library literature about China and China's about the United States over the ten-year period from 1980 to 1989. Library literature in each country about the other was subjected to analysis with the goal of discovering the degree to which library literature in each country is sensitive to the other. Topics of interest in each country's library literature about the other were discussed. The position of American librarianship in China was also presented. It was found that Chinese library professionals were more sensitive to the United States than were Americans to China. The growth in the number of articles in each country about the other increased substantially during the 1980s, which suggests that the growing contact in the field of libraries between China and the United States is one of the chief factors responsible for the expansion of the literature.