何以守正?如何创新?从图书馆概念的反思看我国图书馆学的守正创新

How to Innovate Library Science While Retaining Its Disciplinary Core: A Reflection Based on a Reconceptualization of the Library

文章以我国图书馆学面临的守正创新压力为背景,试图通过反思图书馆概念,追问和回答图书馆学守正创新的具体含义。指出:图书馆的本质特征不是其机构性、场所性、公益性,而是其保障信息有效查询暨获取的功能特性,图书馆就是以各种形式和形态存在的、保障信息查询暨获取的功能体,包括冠名和未冠名“图书馆”的数字化信息查询暨获取平台和APP。图书馆学的不变根基就是它对人类信息查询与获取需要的关切及保障,它的创新空间就是与此相关的一切思想、理论、技术,包括但不限于图书馆这一功能体的理论与技术。

Against the backdrop of an administration-led renaming of the former disciplinary "Library, Information and Archive Management" into "Information Resource Management" in China and the resulting pressure for Library Science to innovate itself within the new disciplinary structure, this paper discusses what makes the disciplinary core of Library Science and how the discipline should innovate itself while retaining its core. It does so by a revisit to the concept of the library first. It shows that the essential feature of a library is its function to enable information search and access. While it is common for libraries to exist as institutions, as places and as collections of literature, it is universal for all libraries to exist as a functional entity to ensure information discoverability and accessibility. Therefore, the disciplinary core of Library Science and its extended version Library and Information Science is its concern with human beings’ fundamental needs to search and access information. This also provides the discipline a sense of direction for its innovations.