Historical Method in Bibliography Science by E.K. Bespalova

The scientific legacy of Emilia Konstantinovna Bespalova, well-known Russian bibliographer, theorist and historian of bibliography, includes more than 200 works. She laid her own line in theoretical and methodological understanding of bibliography science and activity. “Formation of Bibliographic Thought in Russia (Up to the 60s of the 19th century)” is the last fundamental work of E.K. Bespalova; it describes the philosophical and methodological explication of bibliography as a naturally occurring phenomenon of information nature. There was formed unique method of analysis that considered historical and bibliographic facts in the context of professionalization of bibliographic activity. The analysis of bibliographic phenomena applied by E.K. Bespalova can be generally described as combination of modern theoretical knowledge on bibliography, methodology of system-activity approach and philosophy of historical process. The historical-theoretical method of studying bibliographic activity at different stages of its development allows a modern researcher to see the institutional significance of bibliographic processes as one of the full-fledged components of the global information picture.

Analyzing the initial, original object of bibliographic activity — a book, the scientist proves that it was the process of replication and therefore the need to create the secondary structure of a book in a form of title page, which made a book to be the “book”. Through the concept of “book” E.K. Bespalova also traces interaction and sequential connection of three systems — “knowledge”, “book” (“document”) and “bibliographic document”. From the point of view of cognitive potential of the history of bibliography, bibliographical guide is of historical and theoretical interest being the result of activity and the object of desobjectivation in it of the conceptual theoretical-methodological and historical representations of authors, composers and doers of the history of bibliography. As the main differentiation of bibliographic products, Bespalova puts forward the division into timer bibliographic subsystems (reflection of current, retrospective, prospective primary flow) and chorographic subsystems that restrict documentary flows by the territorial and linguistic principle. The historical method by E.K. Bespalova reveals a wide range of theoretical foundations that enrich modern bibliography science.

1. Bespalova E.K. Formirovanie bibliograficheskoi mysli v Rossii (do 60-kh gg. XIX v.) [Bibliographic Thought Formation in Russia (Up to the 1860s)]. St. Petersburg, Professiya Publ., 2007, 320 p.

2. Zubov Yu.S. Bibliography as a System of Surrogate Knowledge, Teoretiko-metodologicheskie problemy sovremennogo sovetskogo bibliografovedeniya [Theoretical and Methodological Issues of Modern Soviet Bibliography Studies]. Moscow, 1981, pp. 23—40 (in Russ.).

3. Chyapite Yu.A. Problemy klassifitsirovaniya bibliograficheskikh posobii i bibliografii [Classification Issues of Bibliographic Manuals and Bibliography], cand. ped. sci. diss. Leningrad, 1978, 236 p.

4. Egornova L.A. Formirovanie v SSSR istorii bibliografii kak nauchnoi distsipliny, 1917—1981 gg. [Formation of the History of Bibliography as a Scientific Discipline in the USSR, 1917—1981], cand. ped. sci. diss. Moscow, 1982, 311 p.

5. Emiliya Konstantinovna Bespalova: biobibliograficheskii ukazatel’: k 75-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya [Emilia Konstantinovna Bespalova: biobibliographic index: to the 75th anniversary of her birth]. Moscow, 2005, 75 p.

6. Bokan M.G., Bazhenova N.M. E.K. Bespalova’s Scientific and Archival Heritage Stored in the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bibliografiya [Bibliography], 2014, no. 3, pp. 129—133 (in Russ.).

7. Bokan M.G. Working with the Archive of E.K. Bespalova in the Library Science Collection of the Academy of Sciences Library, Peterburgskaya bibliotechnaya shkola [Petersburg Library School], 2018, no. 1 (61), pp. 154—156 (in Russ.).

8. Bespalova E.K. Izbrannoe: stat’i za 20 let. V 2 t. [Selected Works: Articles for 20 Years. In 2 volumes]. Moscow, MGUK Publ., 1994, vol. 1, 276 p.

9. Bespalova E.K. Izbrannoe: stat’i za 20 let. V 2 t. [Selected Works: Articles for 20 Years. In 2 volumes]. Moscow, MGUK Publ., 1994, vol. 2, 322 p.

10. Bespalova E.K. Teoriya rekomendatel’noi bibliografii: sostoyanie i problemy [Theory of Recommendation Bibliography: Status and Issues], cand. ped. sci. diss. abstr. Moscow, 1975, 24 p.

11. Bespalova E.K. The Practice of Secondary Bibliographing as the Source of the Theory of Bibliography, Sovremennye problemy bibliografii i bibliografovedeniya: mezhvuz. sb. nauch. tr. [Modern Issues of Bibliography and Bibliography Studies: interuniversity collection of scientific papers]. Moscow, 1986, pp. 67—85 (in Russ.).

12. Bespalova E.K. How the Russian Bibliographic Society Was Being Shut Down, Sovetskaya bibliografiya [Soviet Bibliography], 1989, no. 1, pp. 75—81 (in Russ.).

13. Bespalova E.K. How the Russian Bibliographic Society Was Being Shut Down, Sovetskaya bibliografiya [Soviet Bibliography], 1989, no. 2, pp. 47—54 (in Russ.).

14. Bespalova E.K. Biograficheskii zhanr v bibliografii. Personaliya bibliografov [Biographical Genre in Bibliography. Bibliographers’ Personalities]. Moscow, MGUKI Publ., 2003, 212 p.

15. Bespalova E.K. Theoretical Introduction to the History of Bibliography, Bibliografiya [Bibliography], 2003, no. 5, pp. 41—62 (in Russ.).

16. Bespalova E.K. The History of Russian Bibliography. Initial Period. Bibliography in Russia from the 9th—11th Centuries to the 1860s, Bibliografiya [Bibliography], 2006, no. 3, pp. 79—99 (in Russ.).

17. Mashentseva L.P. Vozniknovenie i razvitie bibliograficheskoi podgotovki bibliotechnykh kadrov vysshei kvalifikatsii v SSSR [Emergence and Development of the Bibliographic Training of Highly Qualified Library Personnel in the USSR], cand. ped. sci. diss. abstr. Moscow, 1986, 16 p.

18. Dambinova Z.D. Stanovlenie i perspektivy razvitiya bibliograficheskoi deyatel’nosti kak predmeta prepodavaniya [Formation and Development Prospects of the Bibliographic Activity as a Teaching Subject], cand. ped. sci. diss. abstr. Moscow, 1987, 16 p.

19. Vaskova N.I. Bibliograficheskaya deyatel’nost’ B.S. Bodnarskogo [B.S. Bodnarsky’s Bibliographic Activity], cand. ped. sci. diss. abstr. Moscow, 1989, 16 p.

20. Khomyakova I.G. Teoretiko-metodologicheskie problemy bibliografii v trudakh N.A. Rubakina [Theoretical and Methodological Issues of Bibliography in N.A. Rubakin’s Works]. Moscow, MGUK Publ., 1996, 220 p.

21. Azheeva E.Yu. N.V. Zdobnov kak istorik russkoi bibliografii: (teoretiko-metodologicheskie aspekty) [N.V. Zdobnov as a Historian of Russian Bibliography: (Theoretical and Methodological Aspects)]. Moscow, MGIK Publ., 1994, 295 p.

22. Karatygina T.F. She Firmly Took her Place among the Top Ten Most Significant Bibliographers of Russia (To the 75th Anniversary of the Famous Russian Bibliographer E.K. Bespalova), Bibliotechnoe delo — 2005: deyatel’nost’ bibliotek i razvitie informatsionnoi kul’tury obshchestva: Materialy 10-i Mezhdunar. nauch. konf. (Moskva, 20—22 apr. 2005 g.) [Proc. 10th Int. Sci. Conf. “Librarianship — 2005: Library Activities and Society’s Information Culture Development” (Moscow, April 20—22, 2005)]. Moscow, 2005, pp. 310—311 (in Russ.).