The Evolution of the University Textbook on Library Science: 1960—2024

The year 2025 will mark the 65th anniversary of the first Soviet textbook “General Library Science” prepared by O.S. Chubaryan. It was followed by other textbooks in this discipline. Reconstructing their history and evolutionary transformations is important to reflect and evaluate the progressive development and achievements of Soviet and post-Soviet library science. This is a unique pedagogical experience of forming professional knowledge and self-awareness of several generations of future library specialists, many of whom became veterans of librarianship and contributed to its progress. In Soviet times four textbooks on library science were published, approved by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR for use in higher education institutions of the country — three editions of the textbook by O.S. Chubaryan (1960, 1968, 1976) and one collective work — “Library Science. General Course”, prepared by Moscow and Leningrad scientists under the editorship of K.I. Abramov and N.S. Kartashov (1988). The post-Soviet textbook “General Library Science” by V.V. Skvortsov and N.S. Kartashov (1996—1997) was published in two parts. The transition to the Bologna system of education in Russia and the activation of higher education served as a catalyst for the project of publishing textbooks for bachelors of library and information science, the first of which — “Library Science. General Course” under the scientific editorship of A.N. Vaneyev and M.N. Kolesnikova (2013). Later, the textbook of the Moscow State Institute of Culture was published under the editorship of M.Y. Dvorkina and L.I. Salnikova (2015). At the current stage of modernization of the country’s higher education system and withdrawal from the Bologna system of education, the updating of the entire series of textbooks began. The textbook “Library Science. General Course” edited by M.N. Kolesnikova (2024) is prepared on a different conceptual basis than the previous post-Soviet textbooks. From edition to edition, the main professional textbook underwent transformations due to socio-political, cultural-historical, technological and other factors.

1. Chubarian O.S. Obshchee bibliotekovedenie: uchebnik [General Library Science: textbook]. Moscow, Sovetskaya Rossiya Publ., 1960, 202 p.

2. Kolesnikova M.N. (ed.) Bibliotekovedenie. Obshchii kurs: uchebnik [Library Science. General Course: textbook]. St. Petersburg, Professiya Publ., 2024. 228 p.

3. Vaneev A.N. General Library Science in Scientific Work and Teaching at the Department of Library Science and Theory of Reading, Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta kul’tury i iskusstv [Vestnik of St. Petersburg State University of Culture], 2013, no. 4 (17), pp. 20—23 (in Russ.).

4. Chubarian O.S. Obshchee bibliotekovedenie: uchebnik dlya bibliotechnykh fakul’tetov institutov kul’tury [General Library Science: a textbook for library faculties of institutes of culture]. Moscow, Kniga Publ., 1968, 296 p.

5. Chubarian O.S. Obshchee bibliotekovedenie: uchebnik dlya bibliotechnykh fakul’tetov institutov kul’tury, pedagogicheskikh institutov i universitetov [General Library Science: a textbook for library faculties of institutes of culture, pedagogical institutes and universities]. Moscow, Kniga Publ., 1976, 270 p.

6. Vaneev A.N. Library Science Structure, Sovetskoe bibliotekovedenie [Soviet Library Science], 1983, no. 3, pp. 41—51. Available at: https://rusneb.ru/catalog/000199_000009_011085018 (accessed 10.05.2024) (in Russ.).

7. Bibliotechnoe delo: terminologicheskii slovar’ [Librarianship: a terminological dictionary]. Moscow, Kniga Publ., 1986, 223 p.

8. Terminologicheskii slovar’ po bibliotechnomu delu i smezhnym otraslyam znaniya [Terminological Dictionary of Librarianship and Related Fields of Knowledge]. Moscow, 1995, 266 p.

9. Bibliotechnoe delo: terminologicheskii slovar’ [Librarianship: a terminological dictionary]. Moscow, 1997, 167 p.

10. Bibliotechnaya ehntsiklopediya [Library Encyclopedia]. Moscow, Pashkov Dom Publ., 2007, 1299 p.

11. Abramov K.I., Kartashov N.S. (eds.) Bibliotekovedenie. Obshchii kurs: uchebnik dlya bibliotechnykh fakul’tetov institutov kul’tury [Library Science. General Course: a textbook for library faculties of institutes of culture]. Moscow, Knizhnaya Palata Publ., 1988, 223 p.

12. Kartashov N.S., Skvortsov V.V. Obshchee bibliotekovedenie: v 2 ch. [General Library Science: in 2 parts]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta Kul’tury, 1996, part 1, 87 p.

13. Kartashov N.S., Skvortsov V.V. Obshchee bibliotekovedenie: v 2 ch. [General Library Science: in 2 parts]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta Kul’tury, 1997, part 2, 255 p.

14. Vodolazskaya A.Ya., Gainullina A.V., Klyuchenko T.I. The New Textbook on Library Science, Nauchnye i tekhnicheskie biblioteki [Scientific and Technical Libraries], 1998, no. 4, pp. 67—70 (in Russ.).

15. Vaneev A.N., Kolesnikova M.N. (eds.) Bibliotekovedenie. Obshchii kurs: uchebnik po napravleniyu podgotovki 071900 “Bibliotechno-informatsionnaya deyatel’nost’” (kvalifikatsiya “bakalavr”) [Library Science. General Course: a textbook for the direction of training 071900 “Library and Information Activities” (Bachelor’s Degree)]. St. Petersburg, Professiya Publ., 2013, 237 p.

16. Dvorkina M.Ya., Salnikova L.I. (eds.) Obshchee bibliotekovedenie: uchebnik dlya studentov, obuchayushchikhsya po napravleniyu 071900 “Bibliotechno-informatsionnaya deyatel’nost’” (kvalifikatsiya “bakalavr”) [General Library Science: textbook for students studying in the direction of 071900 “Library and Information Activities” (Bachelor’s Degree)]. Moscow, 2015, 298 p.

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18. On Librarianship: Federal Law of December 29, 1994, no. 78-FZ, Sobranie zakonodatel’stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation], 1995, no. 1, art. 2 (in Russ.).

19. GOST R 7.0.107—2022. Sistema standartov po informatsii, bibliotechnomu i izdatel’skomu delu. Bibliotechno-informatsionnaya deyatel’nost’. Terminy i opredeleniy: natsional’nyi standart Rossiiskoi Federatsii System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and Publishing. Library and Information Activities. Terms and Definitions: National Standard of the Russian Federation]. Moscow, Rossiiskii Institut Standartizatsii Publ., 2022, 28 p.

20. GOST R 7.0.103—2023. Sistema standartov po informatsii, bibliotechnomu i izdatel’skomu delu. Bibliotechno-informatsionnoe obsluzhivanie. Terminy i opredeleniya: natsional’nyi standart Rossiiskoi Federatsii [GOST R 7.0.103—2023. System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and Publishing. Library and Information Service. Terms and Definitions: National Standard of the Russian Federation]. Moscow, Rossiiskii Institut Standartizatsii Publ., 2024, 24 p.

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