This thesis aims to make innovative research on special management models of libraries in art colleges in the information age. It mainly focuses on how the application of the Internet has advanced the construction of libraries under the information age, especially how the special management concepts and models of libraries in art colleges have taken on new features and improvement after the reform. Based on a functional analysis of the given information, the author makes an attempt to research and explore an innovative management model and a more effective way of construction and service of featured document resources. It demonstrates the new changes and strategies of library management in art colleges in the information era by means of experience summarization. In the meantime, a summary of experience in library management takes shape through the research on systematizing and theorizing the construction and service of featured resources in libraries of art colleges and practical situations. It is hoped that this thesis will provide valuable empirical references for researches on the improvement of construction and service on featured resources in libraries of art colleges.

Keywords: information age, libraries in art colleges, featured resources, management innovation

With the rapid development of information technology, college libraries are confronted with new challenges of hardware settings, personnel allocation, resource optimization and collection improvement. To deal with those new challenges, it is necessary to innovate and optimize the management models, and make new strategies for development. Besides, in order to provide reference for the optimization of college libraries, it is important to jump out of the traditional management pattern, define new features of college libraries in the information age, and analyze the ideas, systems and models of management. In the context of the “Internet”, the methods of obtaining information are diversified, and information services are demanded to be more personalized and more intelligent, which require libraries to reasonably allocate information resources and provide high-quality information services. The core of library collections lies on the featured resources. In the second section of Innovation on the Management Model of University Library Adapted to Specialized Service, the necessity of adapted specialized service of innovation on library management model was mentioned as “We innovate library management model for the purpose of providing specialized service. The library exists not only for students to read conveniently, but also to cultivate their humanistic qualities, which requires the management model of library should be adapted to provide specialized service for the individualized development of contemporary students. The innovation of the management model of libraries, serves as a creative management model to realize all-round, multi-perspective, multi-aspect management model of libraries. Only in such a model can libraries be taken fully utilized.¹ Thus, it is necessary to have a study on innovating and optimizing the management models of college libraries in the information age. The construction of characteristic resources and the development of its services are of great significance to optimize the distribution of collected resources, develop new service models and enhance intrinsic values of the libraries.

In the era of big data, both the amount of literature and the access to information have surged. Since the advent of the information age, information has been disseminated faster; the access to information has been diversified; and the amount of information has been increased. Driven by the information technology, the libraries in art colleges can obtain information through multiple channels and enrich their collections. With the assistance of information technology, great changes have taken on the storage model of the information resources in libraries, as a large amount of literature can be reserved in a small database. A CD data management system based on information technology has been constructed to shift from printed documents into electronic ones, providing abundant information for retrieval as well as convenient consulting services. Multiple channels of reading and obtaining information have accelerated the dissemination of literature resources and science knowledge. Readers can search for and integrate the information resources after acquiring them. For libraries of art colleges, it becomes more convenient to exchange and restore the information resources, and thus becomes more attractive to readers.

The characteristic resources refer to those possessed by only one library, or those rarely seen in other libraries while one has abundant collections, including historical, regional, thematic and other resources with distinctive features and forms. Features represent unique tastes and styles, which distinguish the information resources of one library from those of the others. According to the Rules and Regulation on Libraries in Institutions of Higher Education² amended by the Ministry of Education in 2016, libraries should, in construction of information resources, coordinate paper, digital resources and resources with other carriers, maintain the integrity and continuity of important literature and featured resources, focus on collecting relevant teaching and scientific research materials and achievements in all kinds of forms, seek for and receive donations from the public, and establish an information resource system with college characteristics.² Thus, featured resources are the core competitiveness of the libraries in art colleges. The construction of featured resources in libraries of art colleges and the development of services are not only needed for their social functions of reserving cultural heritages, developing intelligence resources and passing on knowledge and civilization, but also important as measures to attract readers extensively using collection resources, thus improving the readers’ satisfaction, and enhance values of art college libraries.

With multiple carriers, information retrieval will be more efficient. Traditionally, the information is reserved with printed literature and periodicals in the libraries of art colleges, and corresponding information carrier is relatively simple. The retrieval of information is also limited by time and space with low management efficiency. In the information age, however, there are various carriers for the college library collections, such as net-disks, mobile hard disks and network databases. With information technology, teachers and students can easily retrieve information, obtain documents, as well as copy and share resources, which greatly improves the efficiency of library retrieval services.

Libraries in art colleges are late comers in the construction of featured resources with few self-built databases. In recent years, the Ministry of Education has launched the evaluation for the undergraduate education in colleges and universities. Since then, most art colleges have established databases with characteristics and high practiced value according to their own preponderant disciplines and featured specialties. The homepage of the library’s website has a customized column of “featured resources”, secondary categories of which are the databases of featured resources, courses and training of information retrieval and characteristic education resources respectively. Under the databases of featured resources, there are databases of film studies, master’s theses, films and television, music, art, and dance. The early journals and databases of film are important characteristic resources for highlighting the advantages of film studies.

The collections of libraries in art colleges have distinctive features of majors with various carriers, great utility and high historical research value.

1. Distinctive features. Distinctive features of majors constitute the most important and fundamental part of libraries’ featured resource construction in art colleges. Through the collection and preservation of literature and materials mainly related to drama, film and television, the library has formed a system of documentary collections with the features of major disciplines, providing sufficient resources for scholars to conduct research on relevant fields.
2. Abundant carriers. The library boasts many types of featured resources, including books and periodicals from the Republic of China era, archives, papers, records, donated manuscripts, videos and photos. Among them, records, videos and photos account for the major part.
3. Great utility. The library’s collections, including academic theses, excellent textbooks of drama major over years, and publications written by teachers and students, have revealed the great utility of the featured resources. Students can get ideas for their research by reading academic theses, and gain inspiration for the characters they are about to create by watching graduation performances over the years.
4. The library has stored thread-bound ancient books, historical materials of drama movements, as well as books and periodicals from the Republic of China era, reflecting its high value for historical research. These precious documents can help people engaged in the research on drama history by providing detailed materials for their subjects.

Through research, the author found that the distinctive features of majors are the fundamental characteristics in the construction of featured resources in libraries of art colleges. In the fields of music, fine arts, dance, film and drama, the subject features mainly lie on those of majors. In the construction of featured resources, the libraries in art colleges should not only maintain their professional characteristics, but also strengthen cooperation with others. In the process of collecting and constructing featured resources, the department of resources construction should not only classify and organize the library’s existing literature resources into characteristic collections, but also strengthen the contact with all departments, so as to get the donation of characteristic documents from experts, teachers and alumni. The donations could save the procurement cost while greatly expanding collections in the libraries. Besides, the libraries of art colleges could strengthen cooperation with those of comprehensive universities to share resources with each other since more of them have set up disciplines related to art in recent years.

In the information age, the co-construction and sharing of resources are advocated. The development of libraries in art colleges relies on the construction of collected resources. Thus, libraries in the information era should take the way of co-constructing and sharing resources. For the libraries of art colleges, the most direct method of sharing is building shared periodicals reading rooms. It is necessary to introduce advanced management methods and network technologies in the periodical management for establishing the platform of sharing and the framework of shared periodicals reading rooms. The sharing management model could improve the level of information construction, give full play to advantages on information technology in specific situations and provide information for teachers and students anytime and anywhere. With the shared management model as a bridge, the libraries could share and exchange resources with each other, providing a large amount of literature for teachers and students. Also, the sharing management model could drive resource sharing and enlarge the retrieval range, so as to offer more choices for the teachers and students who could share with each other the information they have and spread and construct information with academic values. Meanwhile, it is necessary to adhere to sharing management models, improve the compatibility and advancement and optimize the library management in universities and colleges. Moreover, it is necessary to continuously improve both the quantity and quality of books, which will be provided to teachers and students to change their former impression to the library, and finally to develop modern and scientific library management.

In the information age, the convenience of spreading and copying information has significantly improved the sharing of information resources in libraries of art colleges. In the past, the number of printed literatures was limited. Thus, it was difficult for many people to search for the documents at the same time. However, in the information age, printed documents have been transformed into electronic ones which could be easily copied and shared by people. With the platform for information sharing, libraries could disseminate and exchange information with each other to realize the flow of quality resources among regions. Through the establishment of the data exchange union, the libraries could provide readers with more comprehensive information services to greatly improve the sharing of information resources. The paper resources of art majors are divided into two parts: the professional art books and periodicals purchased by the libraries regularly every year, and the thread-bound ancient books, as well as books and periodicals of the Republic of China accumulated since the establishment of the Academy. The thread-bound ancient books are mainly themed on folk literature, fine arts, music and opera.

Nowadays, the information technology applied in various fields has driven the integrated management of information in libraries. As an innovation for libraries in colleges and universities, the integrated management model of information has higher demands in the construction and development facing both opportunities and threats. Both the reform of literature organization and the optimization of library management system should be based on new requirements of literature management in the information age. In such an era, information upgrades and spreads at a rapid speed, and readers have more urgent demands for improving the convenience of information retrieval. In adherence to information integration, new features of information technology should be integrated into the management of libraries. The staff of libraries in art colleges should have the consciousness of innovation, master skills of providing information retrieval services, get familiar with the selection, integration and collection of library literature resources, and provide readers with targeted information services. The integrated management model of information should be implemented with effective incentive methods and restrictive measures for librarians. Those working in the libraries of art colleges should adhere to the integrated management of literature system, human resource system, as well as science and technology system, and promote the integration of knowledge and ability, so as to offer active services and drive the dissemination and update of literature resources. Besides, it is also necessary to scientifically coordinate the literature resources, knowledge and intelligence, and provide upgrades and services in accordance with the environment of the information age.

In the traditional library management model, the preservation and enriching of resources was put into the first place, while the readers are placed in the second, leading to the lack of comprehensive attention to readers’ diversified demands and had adverse effect on exploring value of books. In the information age, the library management of colleges should adhere to the people-oriented principle, pay attention to the needs of readers, keep innovating management concepts, take the services for readers as the focus of the construction and development of library, prioritize the readers, and do a good job in fine management. People will enjoy reading if there are quiet environment, high-quality experience and considerable services. Thus, libraries of colleges should innovate the management models, pay attention to diversified construction and realize the extension of functions. In addition, library management staff should share their experience on operation through regular communication and interaction, and listen to readers’ opinions through regular exchange meetings. With reference to the experience of other libraries and opinions of readers, the libraries should reform and optimize their management models. Only by embracing it can managers truly apply innovation to their practical work. Therefore, they should enhance study of new ideas, abandon outdated ideas of library management, combine management with teaching and improve students’ independent learning ability, and constantly optimize library management.

The management models tend to be automatic in the information age. With the help of computer technology, the construction of library management systems in colleges and universities could be realized, providing teachers and students with automatic and intelligent services. Through the automatic management model, readers can search information by themselves and the literature will be transformed into electronic ones, which will greatly improve the efficiency of retrieval. Apart from functions mentioned above, the automatic management model can also satisfy different readers’ demands on journal retrieval. Thus, under this context, the managers of libraries in art colleges should take advantage of automatic management to quickly respond to readers’ demands, locate journals and thus to provide targeted services and improve management efficiency.

In the era of the mobile Internet, new media such as WeChat and Microblog are playing increasingly important roles in information services. Therefore, libraries should make full use of the new media to strengthen the promotion of the printed featured resources and maximize personalized services.

1. Introduction to featured resources and services of libraries. Services include categorizing the resources, stating rules and instructions as well as matters requiring attention. After digitalizing the featured resources, libraries should upload them into its WeChat and Microblog accounts and strengthen communication with readers through these platforms, so as to expand its influence and better satisfy the readers’ diversified demands.
2. Improve library website construction. Libraries should improve the construction of its own website. On the homepage, a special column for “featured resources” should be set up, thus seamlessly connecting physical resources with virtual ones; and the sentence of “Welcome to use library featured resources” should be added to facilitate their search for information and thus to make readers understand the basic state of construction and services of library featured resources.

Libraries of art colleges mainly serve their teachers and students by providing supports for scientific research and teaching. The innovation of management models will drive that of the service models. The development of library management should focus on research and application of science and technologies, especially those of cloud platform of books and cloud computing technology. In the information age, the libraries of art colleges should break the limitation of traditional management models and improve the efficiency of services. While reading and searching for literature, readers usually have to make selections, have deep and scientific discussions and dig deep for academic information. Such preparation of materials is a must for conducting in-depth discussion, studying of subjects and solving academic problems. Besides, the assistance of literature resources is also important for the art students who study on their own. Thus, libraries of art colleges must do well in targeted research, give play to the advantages of information technology, and take multiple channels to promote methods of information retrieval, including providing relevant courses and training to realize the shift from passive services to active services. A few measures have been taken, such as uploading literature to WeChat and Microblog, introducing the literature in parts according to different requirements of readers and optimizing services through the improvement of management models.

In the information age, it is necessary to develop new library management models of art colleges. With increasing amount of information, diversified channels of obtaining information, various carriers of information and the continuously improved sharing level, innovation of management models advanced. By introducing the integrated management model of information and implementing the sharing management model, services provided by libraries in art colleges can be improved and breakthroughs will be made.

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The authors declare that there is no competing of interest.

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2. Interpretations on the amendment of rules and regulation on libraries in institutions of higher education. Library Work in Colleges and Universities; 1982.