Following the development of computer information management and network communication technology,major changes emerged in the contemporary library research field. Although a quick disappearance was predicted,libraries are still flourishing all around the world. However,research in the Library Science decreased over the time and there was also a decrease in the use of traditional library terminology in professional publications. As the same time,terms used in Computer Science,Information Science,Sociology,Psychology,as well as in General Education and Political Science became more prevalent in the library's professional publications.

    The value of the modern library's existence resides in improving the usage of society's research resources. It reflects the basic theory of the society's marketing economy:using minimal resource input to reach maximum benefit in resource utilization. As long as there's no fundamental change in the form of social activities,this theory is suitable for all fields and activities in the society.

    The main functions modern libraries perform include the following:systematically collecting resource materials,collecting external and internal features of the resource format for collection management,and using various methods to arrange and organize the collected information. It is only after all these steps are systematically completed that the library can provide its service. The level that various libraries are able to organize and manage information determines the level of service these libraries can provide.

    To librarians,the concept of “literature” originally meant the traditional books,gradually the concept evolved to cover all written materials in paper format. With the development of digital storing methods of “literature”,terms with much broader definitions such as “information”,“knowledge”,“resource” started to become mainstream terms used in the material management activities in the library. Hence the focus in professional research was gradually lost.

    All contents in literature are contained in groups of specially defined coding information. People use special coding information to record their daily life,social and scientific activities,and then transfer it to physical media in order to exchange ideas in society and preserve knowledge for future generation. Literature is the physical media that records the coding information. Coding information includes not only the written language of all nationalities but also the non-language formats,such as picture,sound and visual formats that carry meaningful contents. Once one mastered the rules and regulations of coding information,one is able to read through that material and satisfy oneself by gaining knowledge.

    With the advance in society,the media format that carries literature changes. But the change in media format doesnt have a decisive effect on users utilization of literature contents. The producer of the literature contents either writes on paper or uses some forms of digital device. The difference is that the digitalized storage of literature contents provides the original form of the authorized literature on a digital screen.

    Information management is a fundamental method that humans use to regulate things. Ancient rulers found out such management tools based on the need to rule the society. Applying information management method to the literature management in socialized nature originated from Liu Xiang and Liu Yin,father and son,during the Han Dynasty. “To record” is an important way to systematically managing the literature contents in Chinese traditional literature management. Literature specialist Zhang Xuecheng from Qing Dynasty summarized it as “defend and debate the nature of literature,investigate its origin and formation”. When a compiler “records”,he not only records the contents of the book but also defines what specialized academic field it belongs to,as well as the value,the ranking of the piece,its origination and its impact on the society.

    The term “knowledge management” confuses the librarian,because it mixes the daily activity of “absorbing knowledge through reading” with the coded information recorded in written format which is “knowledge”. The process of reading,in fact,is a special process that the reader goes through during the “information interaction” between personal cultural knowledge and the coded information literature provided. Readers “gain knowledge” through the process of “information interaction”. Even intellectuals who receive library's “knowledge services” must go through the same process of reading literature,interacting with coded information on media,and finally gaining knowledge. Services provided by librarians cant replace this process.

    As the library encounters a literature and data explosion in ever-multiplying digital databases,it should formulate a scientific method to judge the value of literature and select an appropriate system to store and preserve it. It is a new challenge contemporary libraries face,and it should be the goal of library science research to rise up to this challenge.

    The librarian should use techniques such as factual research method,comprehensive analysis in applied contents,analytical methods for quotation,as well as h&r index analysis to systematically analyze the shortage or shortcomings of library holdings in collection development so that a more comprehensive and complete collection of literature resources can be obtained. Such specialized exploration may lead the breakthrough in the basic capacity in socialized literature management. Instead of the traditional linear model in extracting and categorizing information from a single document,the library can focus on the specialized literature group,find out the development path in core literature,and define the valuable literature within such a specialized group. Coincidently,this method matches the theory of our traditional cataloging concept of “defending and debating the nature of literature,investigating its origin and formation”.