Role of A.M. Bochever in the development of specialized bibliography and the Central Scientific Agricultural Library

Abstract

The article presents the main stages of the A.M. Bochever’s biography, a known specialist in special bibliography and library science, who worked in the Central Scientific Agricultural Library (CSAL) for 27 years and 19 years of that period he held the position of the director. A.M. Bochever acted as an author and editor of different bibliographic textbooks. He published above 100 works; in particular he was a co-author of a textbook on agricultural bibliography “Literature on Agriculture”. He made a
 substantial contribution to the theory of library science and
 bibliography, as well as the establishment and development of
 the CSAL. The A.M. Bochever’s views are presented with
 respect to bibliography and its place in the society, the
 problems of a library, the separation of functions of a library
 and scientific and technical information bodies, the role of
 coordination and cooperation in the activity of agricultural
 libraries. He regarded bibliography as a basis for all types of
 scientific and technical information, emphasized its social and
 cultural role. He proposed to consider the bibliography of
 agricultural literature as an independent branch of general
 bibliography. He promoted creating in the CSAL of a
 bibliographical information system comprising alert (an
 initiator of creation), recommendatory, retrospective and
 current bibliography. In the 1960s he organized in the CSAL
 the Centralized Bibliographical Information (CBI): the
 distribution of a ready catalog card which was both the
 centralized catalogization of publications on agriculture, as
 well as the current bibliographical information. He advocated
 for coordination of the work of libraries and their cooperation
 in library service. The A.M. Bochever’s ideas were reflected in
 series of industry-wide methodical documents, including
 “Regulation on the Unified System of Scientific Technical
 Information of the USSR State Agriculture Committee”.