Formation of the Conceptual Vision of the History of Librarianship in Russia: Problem Statement

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of two major conceptual visions of the process of rise and development of the national librarianship in the 11th — 17th centuries. In the 19th — early 20th century in the Church history there formed the bibliological concept of the history of librarianship. It is based on the idea of library as an ordered large book collection, which in the initial stage had ensured collecting and storage of books and in the next stage — their use. In the mid-twentieth century in the domestic library science there started to form the social-cultural concept of the history of librarianship in Russia. Its main provisions were formulated by M.I. Slukhovsky in the 1960-ies. The concept is based on the idea of library as a cultural institution created to ensure public needs (religious, educational, scientific, leisure, etc.) through the acquisition of specialized book collection in a form of library stock and technology for its public use. There is introduced the concept of “protolibrary” — book collection aimed to satisfy social needs, however using the technology of book publishing, and occupying an intermediate position between the book collection and library.