About the social turn in foreign library science

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the bibliographic database of the Google Academy as a source for studying the most cited articles of leading foreign journals in library and information sciences. The most rated journals on library science are introduced. The crisis of foreign library science as a social discipline in the subjects of the journal Scientometrics is ascertained. The place of foreign library science in the interdisciplinary discourse for November 2022 has been estimated. The leader of the turn towards new library science with greater focus on knowledge management and socio-ethical component in researches is designated R. David Lankes Professor of Library Science at the University of Texas in Austin. Based on the analysis of the most cited articles in the leading foreign journals on library science, the ways of modern library studies within the framework of the so-called “social turn”, as well as the directions of interdisciplinary research in the field of social sciences with the participation of specialists in library and information sciences, are shown. When searching for a new library methodology, the so-called “chronotopy” and “altmetrics” are considered as a compromise option for combining quantitative and qualitative research methods, which also involve the author’s immersion in the content under study – the basis for scientific introspection, self-reflection and self-control.