The Evolution of the University Textbook on Library Science: 1960—2024

Abstract

The year 2025 will mark the 65th anniversary of the first Soviet textbook “General Library Science” prepared by O.S. Chubaryan. It was followed by other textbooks in this discipline. Reconstructing their history and evolutionary transformations is important to reflect and evaluate the progressive development and achievements of Soviet and post-Soviet library science. This is a unique pedagogical experience of forming professional knowledge and self-awareness of several generations of future library specialists, many of whom became veterans of librarianship and contributed to its progress. In Soviet times four textbooks on library science were published, approved by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR for use in higher education institutions of the country — three editions of the textbook by O.S. Chubaryan (1960, 1968, 1976) and one collective work — “Library Science. General Course”, prepared by Moscow and Leningrad scientists under the editorship of K.I. Abramov and N.S. Kartashov (1988). The post-Soviet textbook “General Library Science” by V.V. Skvortsov and N.S. Kartashov (1996—1997) was published in two parts. The transition to the Bologna system of education in Russia and the activation of higher education served as a catalyst for the project of publishing textbooks for bachelors of library and information science, the first of which — “Library Science. General Course” under the scientific editorship of A.N. Vaneyev and M.N. Kolesnikova (2013). Later, the textbook of the Moscow State Institute of Culture was published under the editorship of M.Y. Dvorkina and L.I. Salnikova (2015). At the current stage of modernization of the country’s higher education system and withdrawal from the Bologna system of education, the updating of the entire series of textbooks began. The textbook “Library Science. General Course” edited by M.N. Kolesnikova (2024) is prepared on a different conceptual basis than the previous post-Soviet textbooks. From edition to edition, the main professional textbook underwent transformations due to socio-political, cultural-historical, technological and other factors.