in search of library philosophy
TRANSCRIPT
In Search of Library Philosophy
CAPAL-ACBAP 2017 Professional Practice and Values 1: Philosophical Explorations
31 May, 2017
Sandra Cowan, M.Phil., MLISUniversity of Lethbridge Library
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
“An expressed concern in librarianship is survival. While
this concern is legitimate in the sense that those external to
the field must have an understanding of our purpose, a
more central element is self-understanding of our purpose.”
(Budd, 1995, p. 315)
Alberta Canola https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_EzhBxUAAEy1-t.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/photo-twister/2676326824
Library Philosophy
• WHY?
• Theoretical
• Meaning
• Values
• Reflective
• Analytical
• Essential Principles
Library Science/Practice
• HOW?
• Pragmatic
• Technical
• Applied
• Technique/activity focus
• Empirical
• Instrumental
Cossette, Andre. (1976). Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on the Philosophy of Librarianship.
Cossette, Andre. (1976). Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on
the Philosophy of Librarianship. Translated by Rory Litwin,
2009. Duluth, MN: Library Juice Press.
“[Academic libraries] are products of the Enlightenment and its
promotion of reason and freedom. The pursuit of knowledge
for its own sake wherever it might lead, the examination of
every possible topic in the light of reason, and the freedom to
publish that research to the world – the underlying principles
of modern universities – led to the inevitable creation of
libraries capable of supporting those goals.”
(Bivens-Tatum, 2011, p. 91)
Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. (2011). Libraries and the Enlightenment. Los Angeles, CA:
Library Juice Press.
“This vision of libraries as secondary institutions with the
principle role of ‘service’ has considerably retarded the
development of library science, because it has placed theory –
the principles and knowledge base of the discipline outside of
professional practice – in a region outside the sphere of
influence of librarians themselves.”
(Cossette, 1976, p. 39)
“The bewildered groping which characterizes so much of our
activity is largely the result of lack of a definite conception of
our purposes. Not only that, but we can scarcely expect
society to think of the library in terms of its own constituent
elements until we have made some progress in defining what
the library’s ends are or should be.”
(Danton, 1934, p. 545)
Radford, Gary P., & Budd, John M. (1997). We do need a
philosophy of library and information science—We’re not
confused enough: A response to Zwadlo. The Library Quarterly,
67(3), 315-321.
Zwadlo, Jim. (1997). We don’t need a philosophy of library and
information science: We’re confused enough already. The
Library Quarterly, 67(2), 103-121.
Zwadlo, Jim. (1998). Comment. The
Library Quarterly, 68(1), 114-117.
“One of the problems with positivism in the social sciences in
general and LIS in particular, is that its functioning as an
epistemological foundation has not been recognized. It has
remained latent, assumed, and taken for granted, and, as such,
has not been subjected to much critical scrutiny.”
(Radford & Budd, 1997, p.318)
PositivismSocial
Epistemology
Philosophy of Information
Hermeneutical Phenomenology
Positivism
• The belief in and the quest for
objectivity and certainty, the ultimate
authority of science and its methods,
and the rejection of the metaphysical
• The conviction that knowledge in all
disciplines depends on the empirical
methods of natural science, which will
lead to objective knowledge
• Generalizing the results of empirical
research will reveal the general laws or
rules that exist but are obscure
(summarized from the work of John Budd)
Social Epistemology
“The study of those processes by which
society as a whole seeks to achieve a
perceptive or understanding relation to the
total environment—physical, psychological,
and intellectual.”
(Margaret Egan & Jesse Shera, 1952, p. 132)
Hermeneutical Phenomenology
“Provides us with a way to see ourselves
and our actions that will enable us to
understand these actions and ourselves.
Or, stated another way, it gives us a
means to gain knowledge….a way to
investigate reality.”
(John Budd. 2002, p. 288)
“The philosophical area that studies
the conceptual nature of information,
its dynamics and problems.”
(Luciano Floridi, 2002, p. 38)
Philosophy of Information
Philosophy
Why?
Practice
How?
Praxis“the critical, rational, interpretive, epistemic, and ethical
work of a discipline or profession.”
(Budd, 2003, p. 20)
http://www.livingskies2014.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/IMG_3259.jpg
Thank you!
ReferencesAlkan, Nazli. (2008). The importance and influence of philosophical thinking for
librarians. Library Philosophy and Practice. Paper 207. Retrieved from:
digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/207
Bivens-Tatum, Wayne. (2011). Libraries and the Enlightenment. Los Angeles, CA: Library
Juice Press.
Budd, John M. (1995). An epistemological foundation for library and information science.
The Library Quarterly, 65(3), 295-318.
Budd, John M. (2001). Knowledge and Knowing in Library and Information Science: A
Philosophical Framework. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.
Budd, John M. (2003). The library, praxis, and symbolic power. The Library Quarterly,
73(1), 19-32.
Budd, John M. (2002). Jesse Shera, social epistemology and praxis. Social Epistemology
16(1), 93-98.
Budd, John M. (2005). Phenomenology and information studies. Journal of
Documentation, 61(1), 44-59.
Buschman, John. (2006). “The integrity and obstinacy of intellectual creations”: Jurgen
Habermas and librarianship’s theoretical literature. The Library Quarterly, 76(3),
270-299.
Buschman, John. (2007). Transgression or stasis? Challenging Foucault in LIS Theory. The
Library Quarterly, 77(1), 21-44.
Cossette, Andre. (1976). Humanism and Libraries: An Essay on the Philosophy of
Librarianship. Translated by Rory Litwin, 2009. Duluth, MN: Library Juice Press.
Danton, J. Periam. (1934). Plea for a philosophy of librarianship: Philosophia vero omnium mater atrium. The Library Quarterly, 4(4), 527-551.
Egan, Margaret E., & Shera, Jesse H. (1952). Foundations of a theory of bibliography. The Library Quarterly, 22(2), 125-137.
Fallis, Don. (2002). Introduction: Social epistemology and information science. Social Epistemology, 16(1), 1-4.
Floridi, Luciano. (2002). On defining library and information science as applied philosophy of information. Social Epistemology, 16(1), 37-49.
Ford, Emily. (2012). What do we do and why do we do it? In the Library with a Lead Pipe. Retrieved from: www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2012/what-do-we-do-and-why-do-we-do-it
Furner, Jonathan. (2010). Philosophy and information science. Annual Review of Science and Technology, 44(1), 159-200.
Fyffe, Richard. (2015). The value of information: Normativity, epistemology, and LIS in Luciano Floridi. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 15(2), 267-286.
Radford, Gary P. (1992). Positivism, Foucault, and the fantasia of the library: Conceptions of knowledge and the modern library experience. The Library Quarterly, 62(4), 408-424.
Radford, Gary P., & Budd, John M. (1997). We do need a philosophy of library and information science—We’re not confused enough: A response to Zwadlo. The Library Quarterly, 67(3), 315-321.
Tkach, David. (2017). The situatedness of the seeker: Toward a Heideggerian understanding of information seeking. Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship, 2, 27-41.
Zalta, E.N., ed. (2016). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from:
https://plato.stanford.edu/
Zwadlo, Jim. (1997). We don’t need a philosophy of library and information science: We’re
confused enough already. The Library Quarterly, 67(2), 103-121.
Zwadlo, Jim. (1998). Comment. The Library Quarterly, 68(1), 114-117.