Library science

Portrait of Gabriel Naudé, author of Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque (1627), later translated into English in 1661

The earliest text on "library operations", Advice on Establishing a Library was published in 1627 by French librarian and scholar Gabriel Naudé. Naudé wrote prolifically, producing works on many subjects including politics, religion, history, and the supernatural. He put into practice all the ideas put forth in Advice when given the opportunity to build and maintain the library of Cardinal Jules Mazarin.[13]

Martin Schrettinger wrote the second textbook (the first in Germany) on the subject from 1808 to 1829.

Thomas Jefferson, whose library at Monticello consisted of thousands of books, devised a classification system inspired by the Baconian method, which grouped books more or less by subject rather than alphabetically, as it was previously done.[14]

The Jefferson collection provided the start of what became the Library of Congress.[15]

The first American school of librarianship opened at Columbia University under the leadership of Melvil Dewey, noted for his 1876 decimal classification, on January 5, 1887, as the School of Library Economy. The term library economy was common in the U.S. until 1942, with the term, library science, predominant through much of the 20th century. Key events are described in "History of American Library Science: Its Origins and Early Development."[16]

Later, the term was used in the title of S. R. Ranganathan's The Five Laws of Library Science, published in 1931, and in the title of Lee Pierce Butler's 1933 book, An Introduction to Library Science (University of Chicago Press).

S. R. Ranganathan conceived the five laws of library science and the development of the first major analytico-synthetic classification system, the colon classification.[17]

In the United States, Lee Pierce Butler's new approach advocated research using quantitative methods and ideas in the social sciences with the aim of using librarianship to address society's information needs. He was one of the first faculty at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, which changed the structure and focus of education for librarianship in the twentieth century. This research agenda went against the more procedure-based approach of "library economy," which was mostly confined to practical problems in the administration of libraries.

William Stetson Merrill's A Code for Classifiers, released in several editions from 1914 to 1939,[18] is an example of a more pragmatic approach, where arguments stemming from in-depth knowledge about each field of study are employed to recommend a system of classification. While Ranganathan's approach was philosophical, it was also tied more to the day-to-day business of running a library. A reworking of Ranganathan's laws was published in 1995 which removes the constant references to books. Michael Gorman's Our Enduring Values: Librarianship in the 21st Century features his eight principles necessary by library professionals and incorporate knowledge and information in all their forms, allowing for digital information to be considered.

In more recent years, with the growth of digital technology, the field has been greatly influenced by information science concepts. In the English speaking world the term "library science" seems to have been used for the first time in India[19] in the 1916 book Punjab Library Primer, written by Asa Don Dickinson and published by the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.[20] This university was the first in Asia to begin teaching "library science". The Punjab Library Primer was the first textbook on library science published in English anywhere in the world. The first textbook in the United States was the Manual of Library Economy by James Duff Brown, published in 1903. In 1923, C. C. Williamson, who was appointed by the Carnegie Corporation, published an assessment of library science education entitled "The Williamson Report," which designated that universities should provide library science training.[21] This report had a significant impact on library science training and education. Library research and practical work, the area of information science, has remained largely distinct both in training and in research interests.

The digital age has transformed how information is accessed and retrieved. "The library is now a part of a complex and dynamic educational, recreational, and informational infrastructure."[22] Mobile devices and applications with wireless networking, high-speed computers and networks, and the computing cloud have deeply impacted and developed information science and information services.[23] The evolution of the library sciences maintains its mission of access equity and community space, as well as the new means for information retrieval called information literacy skills. All catalogues, databases, and a growing number of books are all available on the Internet. In addition, the expanding free access to open source journals and sources such as Wikipedia have fundamentally impacted how information is accessed. Information literacy is the ability to "determine the extent of information needed, access the needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluate information and its sources critically, incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base, use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally."[24]

The study of librarianship for public libraries covers issues such as cataloging; collection development for a diverse community; information literacy; readers' advisory; community standards; public services-focused librarianship; serving a diverse community of adults, children, and teens; intellectual freedom; censorship; and legal and budgeting issues. The public library as a commons or public sphere based on the work of Jürgen Habermas has become a central metaphor in the 21st century.[32]

Most people are familiar with municipal public libraries, but there are, in fact, four different types of public libraries: association libraries, municipal public libraries, school district libraries and special district public libraries. It is important to be able to distinguish among the four. Each receives its funding through different sources, each is established by a different set of voters, and not all are subject to municipal civil service governance.[33]

The study of school librarianship covers library services for children in primary through secondary school. In some regions, the local government may have stricter standards for the education and certification of school librarians (who are often considered a special case of teacher), than for other librarians, and the educational program will include those local criteria. School librarianship may also include issues of intellectual freedom, pedagogy, information literacy, and how to build a cooperative curriculum with the teaching staff.

The study of academic librarianship covers library services for colleges and universities. Issues of special importance to the field may include copyright; technology, digital libraries, and digital repositories; academic freedom; open access to scholarly works; as well as specialized knowledge of subject areas important to the institution and the relevant reference works. Librarians often divide focus individually as liaisons on particular schools within a college or university.

Some academic librarians are considered faculty, and hold similar academic ranks to those of professors, while others are not. In either case, the minimal qualification is a Master of Arts in Library Studies or Masters of Arts in Library Science. Some academic libraries may only require a master's degree in a specific academic field or a related field, such as educational technology.

The study of archives includes the training of archivists, librarians specially trained to maintain and build archives of records intended for historical preservation. Special issues include physical preservation, conservation and restoration of materials and mass deacidification; specialist catalogs; solo work; access; and appraisal. Many archivists are also trained historians specializing in the period covered by the archive.

The archival mission includes three major goals: To identify papers and records that have enduring value, to preserve the identified papers, and to make the papers available to others.[34]

There are significant differences between libraries and archives, including differences in collections, records creation, item acquisition, and preferred behavior in the institution. The major difference in collections is that library collections typically comprise published items (books, magazines, etc.), while archival collections are usually unpublished works (letters, diaries, etc.) In managing their collections, libraries will categorize items individually, but archival items never stand alone. An archival record gains its meaning and importance from its relationship to the entire collection; therefore archival items are usually received by the archive in a group or batch. Library collections are created by many individuals, as each author and illustrator creates their own publication; in contrast, an archive usually collects the records of one person, family, institution, or organization, and so the archival items will have fewer source authors.[34]

Another difference between a library and an archive is that library materials are created explicitly by authors or others who are working intentionally. They choose to write and publish a book, for example, and that occurs. Archival materials are not created intentionally. Instead, the items in an archive are what remain after a business, institution, or person conducts their normal business practices. The collection of letters, documents, receipts, ledger books, etc. were created with intention to perform daily tasks, they were not created in order to populate a future archive.[34]

As for item acquisition, libraries receive items individually, but archival items will usually become part of the archive's collection as a cohesive group.[34]

Behavior in an archive differs from behavior in a library, as well. In most libraries, patrons are allowed and encouraged to browse the stacks, because the books are openly available to the public. Archival items almost never circulate, and someone interested in viewing documents must request them of the archivist and may only view them in a closed reading room.[34] Those who wish to visit an archive will usually begin with an entrance interview. This is an opportunity for the archivist to register the researcher, confirm their identity, and determine their research needs. This is also the opportune time for the archivist to review reading room rules, which vary but typically include policies on privacy, photocopying, the use of finding aids, and restrictions on food, drinks, and other activities or items that could damage the archival materials.[34]

Special libraries are libraries established to meet the highly specialised requirements of professional or business groups. A library is special depending on whether it covers a specialised collection, a special subject, or a particular group of users or even the type of parent organization. A library can be special if it only serves a particular group of users such as lawyers, doctors, nurses, etc. These libraries are called professional libraries and special librarians include almost any other form of librarianship, including those who serve in medical libraries (and hospitals or medical schools), corporations, news agencies, government organizations, or other special collections. The issues at these libraries are specific to the industries they inhabit, but may include solo work, corporate financing, specialized collection development, and extensive self-promotion to potential patrons. Special librarians have their own professional organization, the Special Libraries Association (SLA).

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)[35] is considered a special library. Its mission is to support, preserve, make accessible, and collaborate in the scholarly research and educational outreach activities of UCAR/NCAR.

Another is the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library.[36] According to its website, "The FBI Library supports the FBI in its statutory mission to uphold the law through investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; and to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local, and international agencies.

A further example would be the classified CIA Library. It is a resource to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, containing over 125,000 written materials, subscribes to around 1,700 periodicals, and had collections in three areas: Historical Intelligence, Circulating, and Reference.[37] In February 1997, three librarians working at the institution spoke to Information Outlook, a publication of the SLA, revealing that the library had been created in 1947, the importance of the library in disseminating information to employees, even with a small staff, and how the library organizes its materials.[38] In May 2021, an unnamed gay librarian, for the institution, was shown in a recruitment video for the agency.[39][40]

Preservation librarians most often work in academic libraries. Their focus is on the management of preservation activities that seek to maintain access to content within books, manuscripts, archival materials, and other library resources. Examples of activities managed by preservation librarians include binding, conservation, digital and analog reformatting, digital preservation, and environmental monitoring.