Abstract: Socialization is an important reform of public libraries in terms of systems and mechanism.
There are three major driving forces for the socialization, namely, the mission of public libraries, the
transformation of government functions, and their new tasks in the New Era. We should clarify the
positioning of public libraries and must not change their attribute of being “public”. There are many
means of socialization, including cooperative services, outsourcing certain business, volunteer services,
library established by social forces, and social forces joining in library governance. We should clarify the
principles and boundaries of such socialization process and pay attention to the essential difference between
“socialization” and “marketization”, the scope of commercialized operations, the responsibility during
outsourcing, the role of libraries in government purchases, and the rational use of volunteers. Reading
promotion, central-branch system development, R&D on cultural and creative products, online to offline
services, and involvement in decision-making are the key breakthroughs in the socialization process of
public libraries.

Key words: Socialization development, Public Library Law of the People’s Republic of China, Librarianship