Through the invention of print, books became numerous enough to warrant personal collections. Through these collections, there came opinions on what should be collected, how it should be arranged, and the “conceptions of purpose, obligations and techniques of a good librarian.” From the 17th century to folks like Shera and Ranganathan, this article gives a brief look into the historic philosophies that were dominant in librarianship up to ALA’s Library Bill of Rights and Broadfield’s ideas of freedom of choice. In terms of the United States, McCrimmon describes, “The philosophy of American librarianship, therefore, gradually developed as an aspect of the national philosophy, centering on intellectual freedom, the infinite possibility of progress, public support of education as a necessary part of responsible citizenship in a democracy, and the value of continuing education throughout life” (495).
What, if anything, has been added to the philosophies of librarianship after this piece leaves off around 1950?
What do you feel was not mentioned in this article? What other philosophies do you feel are missing? Where does the user, or different types of users, fit into these philosophies?
Do you feel like you can relate your library life to any of these outlooks?
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What, if anything, has been added to the philosophies of librarianship after this piece leaves off around 1950?
What do you feel was not mentioned in this article? What other philosophies do you feel are missing? Where does the user, or different types of users, fit into these philosophies?
Do you feel like you can relate your library life to any of these outlooks?
These are great questions. I feel like the one thing that the article does not go into depth on is digital technology and the philosophies around that. The article is over ten years old, which is partially the reason, although, as the article indicated, professionals have been talking about technology/information science for several years. I don't know if we can simply take some of the old philosophies and apply them to today. Looking at Ortega y Gasset's philosophy that "unbridled publication" will turn users away from books, we can see that the technology of today is already moving away from books and paper. Can librarians still have control, as Ortega y Gasset had advocated for? With Google, a private-but-free uber-search engine, becoming increasingly popular with so many people (as well as monopolizing many web related entities), will libraries have to start gaining private support? Or is that a mute point?
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