The Taiwan Government-General Library (Taiwan sōtokufu toshokan), just like its counterpart in Seoul, the Korea Government-General Library (Chōsen sōtokufu toshokan), had the following three goals:

1. to collect the information necessary for managing the colony;
2. to provide services to the Japanese settler community;
3. and, to contribute to imperialization (kōminka) policies of "Japanizing" the colonized population (Katō et al, Nihon no shokuminchi toshokan, 14, 81; Kawata Ikohi, “Ajia shinryaku to Chōsen Sōtokufu Toshokan (3),” Jōkyō to shutai, no. 142 (1987): 130).

The library was a useful tool for managing and collecting knowledge. Moreover, as an institution, it testified to the civilizatory and modernizing mission of the imperial state.