Abstract: As an important part of local documents, folk historical documents are the important
materials of Chinese humanities and social sciences, as well as precious cultural heritages. Based on
a large number of folk historical documents that are still scattered in various places at present, public
libraries should inherit the traditional collection methods of local documents, absorb the existing
research results of the academic circle, and collect them systematically through field investigation and
other methods. Field work can not only collect folk historical documents, but also obtain “expansion
of the historical material” such as oral legends and ritual performances. The combination of documents
interpretation and field work has greatly broadened our understanding and vision of local documents.
There are many new representative methodologies for public library in the collection, collation and
database construction of folk historical documents, such as field work methods in literature collection,
the principle of original documents in local preservation, the principle of household belonging and
maintaining the original document system in collation. In terms of database content, the database is
experiencing the “expansion of historical materials” that includes national laws and regulations and
Confucian literature, while demand-oriented way and cross-border cooperation are conducted in the
development of database.