【Purpose/significance】The purpose of sentiment analysis is to extract and evaluate on the user’s comments or other online text information, and to gain the user’s sentiment inclination to provide decision support for enterprises,governments and other institutions. This paper describes the subject evolution law of sentiment analysis, and its research characteristics in information and library science. 【Method/process】The paper systematically summarizes the study of sentiment analysis in domestic and overseas based on the method of bibliometrics and visualization.【Result/conclusion】Combined with the literature reviews and visualization map, this paper summarizes that the sentiment analysis research is not only closely connected with social media, but also combined computer science, linguistics, philology and other multidisciplinary knowledge. As for information and library science, there is a wide range of application and practical needs of sentiment analysis.