Libraries in the Era of Socio-Cultural Transformations: Modern Challenges and Grounds for Evidential Library Science

The processes of informatization and globalization, development of information technologies, mass media and electronic communication are the major factors that caused socio-cultural transformations. Under these conditions, all social institutions, including libraries, are being transformed and modernized. The article discusses the problem of library “To be or not be in the era of Internet” and the place and role of library in the period of socio-cultural transformations. There are described publicistic and scientific works of library scientists devoted to the modern library. Their position is compared with the interpretation of library as a social institution in the abstracts of dissertation theses defended in the Russian Federation in the period of 2000—2013 in three branches of knowledge — “Philosophical Sciences”, “Cultural Science”, and “Sociological Sciences”. On the basis of their analysis, there are revealed four entities of library as a social institution: “Library as a cultural phenomenon”, “Library as a heart of significant social and cultural information”, “Library as a foundation for the development of science and advanced ideas”, and “Library as a stabilizing social factor”. The author substantiates the need for evidence-based library science as a special approach to library practice, where the management decisions at any level (government, regional, municipal) shall be made on the basis of available evidence, based on the interests of readers (users) and society as a whole, taking into account possible social risks and requirements of social safety. Philosophers, culturologists and sociologists give special attention to the characteristics of the advantages that libraries possess in comparison with the Internet. Library provides selection, systematization and cataloguing of significant social and cultural information; represents knowledge in a documentary and observable form; does not impose on the user the patterns of mass culture and behavioral templates, and encourages readers to spiritual growth by reading and addressing to valuable and relevant cultural information.

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