The Reader and the Library in the Context of Communication between Science and Society

Abstract

The dissemination of scientific knowledge is one of the urgent social tasks today. As part of the interaction between science and society, representatives of the scientific environment create information content, the dissemination of which becomes the task of social institutions, including libraries. The article deeply analyzes part of the results of a survey of readers of public libraries concerning the possibility of the latter’s participation in the communication of science and society in any possible form. The material for the study was a questionnaire survey on the attitude of readers of public libraries to science, conducted in March – April 2022 within the framework of the research project “The current state and trends in the development of communications between Russian science and society”. The opinion of readers of Novosibirsk public libraries is studied, concerning priority ways of obtaining information about scientific achievements, attending popular scientific events and opportunities for access to modern scientific knowledge through the library, while considerable attention is paid to mass events as a form of interaction of communicators in the field of science with society. The following conclusions were made in the study: readers of public libraries are loyal to the potential of libraries for the development of communication between science and society; for them, the library as a means of obtaining information is second after Internet in importance; the library can be considered as one of the platforms for visiting popular science events, and its efforts to strengthen communication links between science and society. They should be aimed at more active cooperation with representatives of the scientific world.