A Study On Service Innovation Of Public Library In Taiwan

With the development of society and technology, the library is facing more and more challenges. As the impact of the network, the downstream marching of the information service providers, and the change of social cultural institutions, such as museums, archives and so on, the library’s status as the centre of knowledge dissemination and information services is increasingly weakened.Public libraries have long been recognized by national governments as important centers of popular education and culture. The public library service influences all levels of society deeply. So it is more urgent for public library to develop innovation service instead of sticking to the traditional model.Public libraries in Taiwan are more active, their service and activities are more abundant and also enjoy higher participation. However, the records in mainland are very limited and out-of-date. During the half year’s study in Taiwan, the writer visited the public libraries in the northern, eastern and southern Taiwan, and selected five representative public libraries (two Taiwan national public library and three municipal public library) for deep study. With the depth interview with the five curators, cases with a relatively rich details are shared, covering from the micro to macro, from the specific data to strategic insight.With methods of documentary analysis, observation and experts interview, this paper studies the service innovation of public libraries which are representative in Taiwan areas. Details of public libraries’outstanding innovation projects are shared and analysised mainly from dimensions of library building and facilities, resources and librarians. According to the common features of these projects, four possible trends in service innovation (omnimedia, platforming, experience-oriented, the highlight of hunmanrace wisdom and social capital accumulation) are put forward.