Visual topical analysis of library and information science

Using research papers of WoS database as the data source, the present paper adopts the method of Documents Co-citation Analysis, and employs the tool of CiteSpace to analyze the theme, evolution and research trend of Library and Information Science (LIS) research in the recent 30 years from 1989 to 2018. The findings demonstrate that (1) research on LIS develops along the path from the ordering of information to the digging and application of information value. And in this process, the factor of “people” and the network information resources have been receiving more and more attentions; (2) over the past 30 years, research on LIS has mainly focused on areas such as information retrieval, social media, information system, information behavior, bibliometrics and webometrics, scientific evaluation and knowledge management; and (3) in the future, LIS research will mainly focus on six theme areas: metrology research, open government, scientific evaluation, big data, social media and information system. These six areas are all significantly affected by social media.