The History of Librarianship through the Prism of Domestic Dissertations Research: Bibliometric Analysis

The aim of the article is to present an overview of generation, formation and development of the history of domestic librarianship, since the late 1930s until 2018, basing on the study of materials of dissertations. In the course of analysis, the author revealed 1064 theses in the field of library science and related areas, 270 of which are devoted to the history of librarianship. The article shows that dissertations research on the history of librarianship in the initial period from 1930 to 1950 occupied up to the half of all library dissertation theses; about a third of them were created in the period from 1951 to 1970 and a quarter — since 1971 to the present. This indicates that interest to the history of librarianship is stable. The article reflects the peak of historical research that fell on the period from 2001 to 2010. The author suggests that 25% indicator level of historical studies of the total number of research works on library science is a necessary and sufficient level to ensure the development of library science in general.

The article notes multidisciplinary nature of dissertations research: 60% of studies defended in pedagogical sciences, 37% — in historical sciences and slightly more than 3% — in other branches of science. The article reveals the gradual increase in the number of prepared and defended dissertation theses in historical sciences, which contributes to the expansion of research space in the history of library construction. The author carried out periodization of dissertations research. It is shown that the main attention was paid to the research studies on the history of Soviet period in library construction.

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