Research Methods Of Library Science Study In China

The research method is an important indication of one subject's development level and maturity. The scientific research methods are important to academic research and especially to the field of library and information science. This paper mainly used the content analysis method, comparative method and survey method to investigate the research methods used in library science .In the research, the author studied from time dimension, theme dimension and author dimension respectively. On this basis, the author analyzed the problems existed in the applications of methods and proposed some suggestions to the future work.This research shows that the dominant methods are traditional methods such as theoretical research method, but its proportion declines in recent years; the frequently-used methods with different themes are no obvious differences except bibliography research and philology research;in the choice of methods,the librarians,graduate students and scientific researchers have their own options.There are some problems existed in the applications of methods: the methodology consciousness of researchers needs to be enhanced and accurate;theoretical research method takes off excessive proportion; the quantitative research methods need to be improved; qualitative methods wait for combing with quantitative methods, etc. On this basis, the causes of these problems are discussed.Finally, the author proposes some suggestions: qualitative methods combine with quantitative methods; strengthen the methodology research;pay attention to the education of research methods;take some publicity programs to popularize research methods and strengthen the academic standards.