Stepanov, vadim konstantinovich - the use of the Internet in professional information activities. Practical work in libraries

V connection with the reform of the Russian higher education in accordance with the requirements of the Bologna process, fixed in the Federal State Educational Standards of the third generation, the preparation of textbooks for bachelors in the direction of "Library and Information Activities" was launched. Among the planned editions there is a textbook"Analytical and synthetic information processing" . In the course of the work, fundamental discrepancies arose between the authors regarding the target orientation and content of the textbook.There is reason to believe that similar collisions are characteristic of other groups of authors.Since the revealed discrepancies are of a fundamental (professional and ideological) nature, it is reasonable to publicly discuss the positions of opponents in order toto extract from the private polemics of the authors of one textbook general conclusions that are of interest to the library and information community as a whole.

The opponents are the professor A.V. Sokolov (SPbGUKI) and professor VC. Stepanov (MGUKI) ... It should be noted right away that there are positions on which our respected colleagues hold similar views. So, both opponents proceed fromcredo that V.K. Stepanov formulated as follows: “The current generation of librarians has had to live in a period of a grandiose civilizational leap, transforming the way of life of all mankind. In a period of rapid changes in technical, economic and other paradigms, it is necessary to act ahead of time as never before: to understand trends faster than others, to anticipate their consequences and to propose solutions that will effectively solve the problems of not only today, but also tomorrow. It is this difficult task that the most actively thinking part of the library community will have to accomplish: discarding old stereotypes, and working out in as soon as possible to realize a new vision of the library. A library in which absolutely everything will change radically, except for one. It will retain its millennial authority as an institution that has absorbed the wisdom of generations, and is a true bulwark of light, goodness and meaning. " A.V. Sokolov is ready to subscribe to these words, but instead of the vague "stronghold of light, goodness and meaning" he prefers to say "the humanistic stronghold of the nation."

Both opponents are worried about the crisis state of modern libraries, which manifests itself in the outflow of readers, the reduction of the book market, the curtailment of library networks, the depopulation of the library profession, and the impoverishment of library science thought. However, the reasons for the crisis and, accordingly, the ways to overcome it, opponents understand ambiguously. Here are their statements.

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CRISES

Vadim K. STEPANOV, Professor of the Department of Electronic Libraries, information technologies and systems of the Moscow state university culture and arts

The reasons for the critical situation of libraries should be sought not in the malice of the authorities, the declining educational level of the population or the general spiritual impoverishment of the nation, although signs of one, the other, and the third, of course, do exist. The true origins of the crisis are due to the gradual transformation of the aggregate information array of mankind into digital form, which leads to a global change in the entire information communications system.

Gigantic amounts of data are presented on the Internet in free round-the-clock access: daily news and culinary recipes, sports resultscompetitions and classic works of fiction, periodicals, reference books and dictionaries, reproductions of paintings, musical works and films. The network has created qualitatively higher opportunities for information services: lack of distances, access in 24/7 mode, continuous replenishment of the data array for a second. Both various business structures and individual citizens were quick to take advantage of the opportunities that had opened up. Among the competitors of libraries today are both free Internet collections or open scientific archives, and projects of information Internet giants. Library readers now have an alternative to get information, and the readers themselves are changing rapidly. The reader of the digital age is more and more often the owner of an individual device for mobile access to the whole variety of digital information resources. Already today, there is a change in the way of reading: the paper code is naturally replaced by electronic publications reproduced on specialized e-book readers, tablet computers and adaptable devices (smartphones, laptops and even telephones). At the same time, the saturation of users with mobile digitaldevices is growing rapidly: in 2011, the volume of book readers' sales in the Russian market increased by 256% (1.43 million units were sold), and the total world production of tablet computers in 2012 doubled and amounted to 122 million devices). The most recent publishing trend is "fitting" e-books and periodicals for the functionality of "tablets".

All of the above has led to the fact that libraries, having lost their monopoly on information services and thus losing the uniqueness of the services provided, are losing demand, being ousted from the information infrastructure by digital services that provide the same services, but with a much higher quality.

Arkady Vasilievich SOKOLOV, Professor of the Department of Information Management and multimedia systems of the St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts

Competition from the Internet and electronic publications is one, and not even the main, cause of the crisis in Russian libraries. The deepest reasons are, firstly, the dehumanization of society, and secondly, the destructive library policy of the post-Soviet state. Our contemporary N.V. Motroshilova, developing a philosophical theory of civilization, noted not without bitterness: “None of the European countries where I happened to visit, I have not come across such barbaric behavior of people in relation to their country, their people and even themselves, theirloved ones, which in type and consequences is tantamount to the behavior of suicides, fathers and infants ”. She cites as examples Forest fires, poisoning of reservoirs with industrial and household waste, pollution of the habitat. The concerned philosopher states that there is no program declared by the state or political parties to overcome at least the most intolerant forms and manifestations of Russia's civilizational backwardness, primarily forms and manifestations of savagery, outright barbarism. Disrespect for books, libraries, cultural heritage is one of the manifestations of shameful rudeness.

Unfortunately, not only the common people, but also the ruling elite suffer from lack of culture. An unmistakable indicator of the low culture of a nation is the social position of cultural workers and, in particular, the beggarly wage librarians. Some ruling ignoramuses are tormented by a devilish temptation: isn't it time for Russians to free themselves from the burden of the institutions of paper books and archaic librarianship? Feral technocrats are convinced that with the Internet at their disposal with ever-growing, remotely accessible information resources, the citizens of the information society will not need any old-fashioned libraries, except, perhaps, a digitized resource that concentrates the funds of several of the largest libraries.

Twenty years of experience has shown that a powerful and expensive library and bibliographic social institution, carefully nurtured by Soviet totalitarianism, is not required by the post-Soviet state power. In the Soviet country, libraries of all types and types were fighters of the ideological front, they were mobilized to perform ideological and educational functions, and this was the guarantee of their existence. Being in a hostile environment, the Soviet government maintained libraries, palaces of culture, schools, as it maintained a combat-ready army and a military-industrial complex. When Burbulis and Chubais won, it turned out that they needed banks and stock exchanges, not massive libraries. A pseudo-democratic state does not need any "support bases", except for election headquarters and teams of political strategists. Down with the relics of totalitarianism!

In accordance with the Federal Law on Local Self-Government No. 131-FZ, adopted in 2003, the responsibility for library services to the population rests with the municipal authorities - the poorest and most ignorant power structure.The reduction of rural, regional, city libraries began, the disintegration of the Central Library System and other cultural complexes, in short, a cultural counter-revolution roamed in Russia. Of course, things will not come to the abolition of national libraries - it is impossible to leave only The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. The only constructive achievement recent years is the opening in May 2009 of the Presidential Library, named after the "bookman" president, who began the destruction of the national library system. This library has received the status of a national electronic library and is a typical information resource that has an information resource in the form of digitized collections of documents, publications and multimedia materials and provides wide remote access to this resource for various categories of users.

The State Duma closely watched the life of Russian culture with a selfish intention to introduce market mechanisms into libraries and other cultural institutions. Self-interest was not about making culturerich, but to cut government spending on culture. I don’t know what kind of savings the state budget received from the adopted in June 2005.Federal Law No. 94-FZ "On placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for state and municipal needs", but it is known that it has caused serious damage to the acquisition of libraries. Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which protects copyright, but not the interests of readers, libraries, and national culture, has become a new test of the viability of libraries. Another "anti-library" action is Federal Law No. 83-FZ of May 8, 2010 "On Amendments to Certain legislative acts Of the Russian Federation in connection with the improvement legal status state (municipal) institutions ".

A bleak conclusion suggests itself: our statesmen represent the future Russian society as an unreadable and bookless society. It is no coincidence that we have neither federal laws, nor targeted programs, nor political concepts, nor strategic plans, which would sound worried about the fate of books, reading, and Russian book culture. But on the other hand, since 1995, more than ten directive documents have been promulgated aimed at building an information society in our country.

After an exchange of views between opponents about the causes of the crisis librarianship back to discussing the quality of the content of the new textbook.

SELECTION, SEARCH, MAINTENANCE, SERVICES: CHANGE OF CONCEPTS

A.V. Sokolov

Dear Vadim Konstantinovich! Your understanding of educational (and generally social) communication puzzled me. I quote: “Both my work and the work of our colleaguesvery seriously outdated ... Information activity changes significantly every year ... The next generation of ICT textbooks will be digital only and will be updated every semester. "

I cannot understand your position and let me ask a few questions. What could be outdated in a section that talks about network structure, data transfer technology, main applications of the Internet, the concept of Web 2.0, or where it is about professional information retrieval on the Internet? I don’t understand what you see as “very serious obsolescence” that does not allow recommending books published 2-3 years ago to students?

VC. Stepanov

Any book describing modern Internet applications is irrevocably outdated within one and a half to two years. Naturally, the degree of obsolescence is determined by the content of the sections and, of course, the paragraph on the history of the creation of the Internet, reflecting the key milestones of its evolution in the past, does not age at all.But the content of all topics describing the technology of the Web itself and the methods of using its applications is changing as rapidly as the Internet itself.Obviously, the section on the addressing system, which has undergone gigantic changes since 2010, after the appearance of domain names, requires a cardinal revision.in Chinese and Arabic, Hebrew and Cyrillic.Web 2.0 applications have dramatically increased in importance over the past three years, becoming, in fact, the mainstream of the current stage of development of the Web. This phenomenon even managed to change its name to the more common now "social media". A number of new projects have appeared (for example, Twitter), and all existingradically expanded their own functionality, providing users in many ways with qualitatively different capabilities. And if the earlier was givencharacteristics of individual "dvanolny" applications, now the main attention is paid to applied methodological issues effective application social media in modern library practice.

The sections describing the methods of using various network tools and resources devoted to search engines, reference and bibliographic resources of the Network are becoming obsolete at an even faster pace. The reality today is that of the entire list of directories and search engines that were inactive use in 2009, nowadays only Google and Yandex retain their significance. All others are nothing more than background. But this is not even the main thing - over the past years, both Google and Yandex, in the competition with each other, have changed their own characteristics so seriously that they are, in fact, other tools - as if we were comparing a primitive sledgehammer with a compressor powered jackhammer. They have changed the speed and volume of data indexing, the number of recognizable formats has increased, the ability to translate, a geolocation system, prompts when entering a query, and much more have appeared. In other words, they have become different, and it is also necessary to work with them in a different way.

At the same time, reference books of Internet resources, which, by the way, professed traditional hierarchical "library" approaches to accounting for Internet resources, have since been almost completely withdrawn from use and are not of serious value as data retrieval tools.

A similar situation is observed with reference and bibliographic resources: most of them have qualitatively changed their characteristics, and some are almost completely out of use. Next-generation software for electronic catalogs offers fundamentally different possibilities.

Nowadays, in addition to the ability to formulate a query as accurately as possible and save the results in any form that can be imagined, readers have the opportunity to evaluate the sources found, write reviews on them, and even add keywords. Complete table of contents of books and cover illustrations become a standard part of bibliographic records, and the catalogs themselves include information not only about documents in general (books, maps, sheet music, dissertations, manuscripts and CDs), but also about analytical materials - articles from periodicals. and continuing editions, which have practically never been encountered before. A common feature for consolidated catalogs is the built-in geolocation system, which determines the geographic location of the user and provides him at the beginning of the list of results with data from the library catalogs of the region where he is currently located.

Naturally, the topics devoted to electronic libraries and methods of promoting library sites should be subjected to the same serious revision. If we draw a line under what has been said, then, strictly speaking, what was written in 2008-2009 is no longer true in 2013.

A.V. Sokolov

To complete the picture, I would like to know what changes are coming in the hardware part of information systems and how this will all affect the library and bibliographic services? I can’t believe that “information activity changes significantly every year”. Changes are taking place in the library and bibliographic field, but not at an "annual rate."

How are annual transformations possible in the global Internet? What changes every year? Content? Search technology? Hardware part? Site structure? Why does the bibliographer - 2010 turn out to be an ignoramus in 2013?

VC. Stepanov

You have identified the situation quite correctly: the bibliographer of the 2010 “sample” is largely helpless in 2013. Moreover, at the end of the year, his lagwill be more tangible than at the beginning. And the point is not so much a change in the toolkit, which entailed serious changes in working methods, as it was alreadyindicated above. The point is the change in the functions of bibliographic divisions.

Working with the previous generation of search engines still required specialized tracing skills to a large extent. Naturally, not everyone owned them, which created a significant demand for their services for bibliographic services of libraries. It was in those years that the peak of demand for virtual reference services fell in Russia, and only users who accessed the service's website at the first one o'clock in the morning Moscow time managed to send a request to them. The high user demand and the limitation of the number of requests led to the fact that already in the second hour of the night the limit of accepted requests was exhausted.

Now the situation has changed dramatically - questions can be asked around the clock, and daily limits for accepted requests are almost never fully worked out. The main reason for the decline of virtual helpdesks is to improve the quality of search tools, the work with which has become so simple that when performing the most common queries, the user no longer needs to have special skills. Therefore, the emphasis of bibliographic and, in general, informational activity of libraries, before our very eyes, is smoothly moving from the ability to find data to the ability to competently compare and evaluate the results obtained and recommend the best to a specific user, taking into account all individual characteristics the latter.

In other words, a bibliographer who knows how to search for information is much less in demand today than a bibliographer who knows how to select and evaluate information depending on the preferences of each reader.

Of course, in three years the hardware has changed dramatically - another generation of hardware has changed. Obviously, the mainThe direction of evolution of consumer hardware over the next few years will be associated with the development of tablet computers, which have grown at an average annual rate of 40% over the past few years. The release of smartphones does not lag behind them. The expanding proliferation of mobile devices is forcing libraries to reorient themselves to serving the needs of not only remote, but also mobile users. In 2012, a start was made to develop special software applications that allow users to work with electronic catalogs of libraries using tablet computers or smartphones.

It is worth noting that the mere existence of mobile devices, the overwhelming majority of which are actively used for reading, has managed to have a serious impact on libraries. For example, the iPad — Apple’s famous tablet devices — have changed library policies twice since their release in 2010 with regard to the way they work with digital media. With these devices on the market and proliferation, libraries began building digital collections that could be replicated on iPad readers. In 2010 and 2011. it was extremely rare for libraries to purchase these devices themselves. However, since the turn of 2011-2012. began mass production of electronic multimedia publications that were designed to be played exclusively on the iPad. This made the libraries think about purchasing them, because without their ownership it became impossible to provide all readers with equal access to a unique information array.

Today, plastic electronics are on the way to the market, suggesting the release of lightweight and flexible devices that are likely to replace the current generation of tablet computers. The next replacement of the hardware device park will again change the forms and methods of working with information, to which all participants in the information communications system will have to adapt.

It will not be superfluous to note that under the influence of high technologies, the organizational structure will undoubtedly change. educational activities... The rapid change in technical realities that determine the basic methods of work will lead to an increase in the importance of the system of retraining and on-the-job training.

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF "LIBRARY HAPPINESS"

A.V. Sokolov

I envy Vadim Konstantinovich's youthful enthusiasm. I remember how in 1955 we Leningrad boys were happy about the first line of our metro. And the blockaders, wise in life, grumbled: "There is a metro, but there is no happiness." Today I want to see how happy libraries will be if plastic electronics replace tablet computers. I am not delighted with the "technology race" that you described, because I am tormented by the question: who benefits from this race? Libraries?Readers? Someone else? Let's make ends meet.

The information technology revolution, the fruits of which are computers, the Internet, mobile telephony, is not a spontaneous phenomenon, it was initiated by commercially interested parties. These persons are transnational corporationsApple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and others. The Internet is not a selfless benefit to humanity, but a global commercial enterprise, where information is a commodity and communication is an area of ​​capital investment. Hence - an endless stream of technological upgrades and innovations, designed for paying consumers. Commerce needs advertising, and skilled advertisers offer potential clients the social myth of a global post-industrial prosperous society that satisfies through information technologymaterial and spiritual needs of the individual, social groups and the state. The Internet is presented as a superhighway leading to the information society.

Will Russian libraries be able to achieve the level of informatization corresponding to the conditions of the information society, and steadily support it? Our state, it would seem, guaranteessuch an opportunity. Government program"Information Society (2011–2020)" provides for the creation of a national library resource with a unified catalog based on the digitized funds of the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, the Presidential Library. B.N. Yeltsin, libraries of the state academies of sciences of the Russian Federation, as well as state and municipal public libraries. The following are taken as benchmarks for the informatization of Russian libraries:

  • the share of library collections included in the electronic catalog in the total volume of collections of public libraries should be 100% by 2015;
  • the share of library collections converted to electronic form in the total volume of public libraries should be 50% by 2015 and at least 75% by 2020.

These benchmarks were set in 2010 for the information technology of the time. If these technologies, as V.K. Stepanov, will be radically modernized every two to three years, then by 2020 there will be three technological revolutions and the professional skills of a digital librarian will become outdated three times. I tend to trust V.K. Stepanov, because it is in the interests of powerful transnational corporations. However, I'm not sure if Russian libraries are able to withstandthree attacks of "technological fever" with a frequency of three years. I am afraid that the crisis of Russianlibraries will end in an unplanned lethal the outcome.

And if a miracle happens? If, for example, it is possible to implement the grandiose program of informatization of the country. What will this give the Russian people? The market for information products and services will significantly expand, the contribution of the information sector of the economy to GDP will increase, an information economy will be formed, and the country's defense capacity will increase. We will receive e-government and e-parliament, distance medicine, Remote education, virtual bibliography, electronic consolidated catalog of Russian libraries, the National Electronic Library and many other achievements of human genius. Information crimes, online bank robberies, hacking, virus attacks, etc. will become commonplace. But I am afraid we will not wait for "library happiness". How can we library educators help? Only one thing: write good textbooks on library humanism in the information society.

VC. Stepanov

At this point, there are several questions at once, but, of course, I will immediately answer the main one - about the happiness that “libraries will gain if plastic electronics replace tablet computers”. They will not gain anything, and with the current direction of their development they are guaranteed to lose the latter. Let me explain: in my view, "library happiness" is solely in the demand for libraryservices by the maximum possible number of citizens. In other words, happiness is when someone needs you. In this case, the readers need it. Otherwise, the meaning of the library's existence disappears.

With the development of film screens, the comfort and attractiveness of mobile devices equipped with them will increase even more. Already existing prototypes can be seen in a short video presentation dated January 2013 (youtube.com/watch?v=yp-KB32DlyzM). It is quite remarkable that in this video in a very unsightly form ... iPad is shown as bulky and not very useful devices in comparison with compact and elegant devices based on film screens. An increase in consumer qualities will naturally affect the increase in the prevalence of such multifunctional devices, which, of course, will also be used for reading. Therefore, it will be even more intensethere will be a shift away from paper, to which libraries are so attached, and, accordingly, the number of those who may need them will continue to dwindle. Their demand will decrease significantly even in comparison with the current one, which is already very low.

Concerning greedy capitalist sharks - corporations, which ... it's hard to understand what, but, in general, unkind. Corporations - whether small or gigantic - in general, are of little interest except for making a profit - their entire nature is oriented towards this. The main thing for them is to capture markets. This can be done solely by introducing the latest achievements of science and technology into its products. In a way, they are themselves hostages of the incessant technological race, since they cannot stop - they will immediately be eaten by competitors offering more optimal solutions on the market.

The Internet is not “presented as a superhighway leading to the information society” by the same greedy capitalists. He - the Internet - objectively and in fact is such, making up the foundation of the economy of developed countries. Governments and banks, travel agencies and theaters, utilities and educational institutions - all of them, simultaneously broader and deeper, integrate digital processes into their core activities. And they do this for one and very simple reason - digital processes allow you to achieve higher productivity at a much lower cost. One simple example: a computer program posted on the airline's website that allows any Internet user to independently choose a flight, seat in the cabin, type of food andto pay for the ticket, overnight makes existing sales offices unnecessary. By reducing costs in this way, the company gains a competitivean advantage over other airlines, which, in the old fashioned way, are forced to include cashiers' wages and office rent in their ticket prices.

And, of course, no one (the opinion of the creators of commercials is not taken into account) does not claim that using digital devices makes their owners happier. Their task is different - they make people more productive. A digital society is more productive, and therefore stronger, than an analog one. And just as the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age in its time, so the analog society will give way to the digital one.

And one more extremely important point - the digital (information) society is distinguished by several characteristics, one of which is indispensable dynamism and innovation: the situation is changing rapidly, and those of social institutions that are not "able to withstand three attacks of" technological fever "with a frequency of three years ”, are doomed to extinction. This applies to everyone without exception, including libraries. Until that happens, libraries need to urgently change the forms and, sometimes, the very content of their work. Otherwise, they will not be helped by either successfully implemented or completely failed programs of nationwide informatization.

A.V. Sokolov

I do not share your panic about educational literature. Until books are printed, library science textbooks in book form will be needed. The question is what to teach the new generation of librarians. If their stock of professionalism will consist of "the latest techniques that make it possible to competently solve applied problems of library services" in 2013, then in 2015 our student will be de-professionalized. A professional must know not only current technologies, but also the fundamental laws of his science and practice. Classics are the foundation of professionalism because they help the librarian maintain his professional dignity in the unpredictable environment of plastic electronics or nanotechnology. Cultural heritage is the foundation of civilization. Do you disagree with that?

VC. Stepanov

Educational literature becomes obsolete depending on the industry. Knowledge in "pure" humanitarian disciplines - history, philosophy, literary criticism, art history and the like - retains its "freshness" longer than others. Political science, economics, fundamental natural science disciplines are more dynamic. The greatest dynamics are subject to technical specialties and, of course, all disciplines, one way or another related to the development, implementation or use of digital technologies.

Accordingly, university textbooks on history or literature can retain their value for a relatively long time, with nothing comparable to textbooks, say, in engineering, geochemistry, financial management or social marketing. All applied library disciplines, including the analytical and synthetic processing of information, are among the dynamically developing ones, since all of them are largely implemented today on the basis of digital applications.

There are not so many “stable laws” in our essentially applied library activity. All of them, if desired, can be accommodated in one academic semester. The benefits and tasks of fundamental knowledge are obvious: they should form the rightconceptual understanding of the laws that determine the principles of the industry and the key directions of its development. However, laws and methodological approaches work only at the level of the most general strategy and never at the level of tactics and, moreover, of a specific methodology. No laws of Ranganathan or Bradford, the concept of Yu.N. Stolyarov or A.V. Sokolov will not answer the question "how?" How to create a modern effective system information services, how to attract readers, how to make optimal use of digital resources, etc. All these questions are answered by a methodology built on the basis of digital applications, for which the constant change of generations is a common routine. A specialist armed with a remarkable in his genius Winner's truism "information is information, not matter and not energy",but who does not know how to correctly configure the system of current notification of all materials appearing on the Web or in a specific database on a specific topic, is not a professional in the information industry.

Therefore, I am convinced that, since the textbook on analytical and synthetic information processing does not yet refer to the "cultural heritage - the basis of civilization", it should contain, as far as possible, the most modern sources and describe the latest techniques that allow to competently solve applied problems library service.

As for the near future, I am convinced that the current generation of high school textbooks in library disciplines is probably the last one to be published in the form of printed books. It is necessary to update the knowledge of professionals in the information sphere so rapidly that this task can only be done by electronic publications, the possibility of constant updating of which is inherent in their nature.

A.V. Sokolov

It seems to me that you are conscientiously mistaken in the rush of technological innovation, forgetting that wisdom is conservative and in no hurry. However, just like you, I have the right to make mistakes.

VC. Stepanov

I am extremely glad that it has come to discussing conceptual issues of librarianship, without the solution of which, as taught by one, however, now completely debunked classic, applied issues will always be resolved erroneously. Perhaps this discussion will be the beginning of a broad discussion on what textbooks should be for the information sphere of activity. After all, beyond this brief discussion, such crucial issues for the entire library sphere as the functional obsolescence of all library classification schemes,which by the time the current freshmen graduate from their studies may have completely disappeared from everyday life, as with the development of cataloging, borrowing will become a thing of the past, and now traditional for libraries "manual" cataloging, and the next generation of electronic documents will be able to carry bibliographic information inside itself, and when importing them in the digital collection of a library, the cataloging process will be carried out automatically.

1. Motroshilova N.V. Civilization and barbarism in the modern era. - M., 2007 .-- S. 126.

We invite colleagues to join the discussion!

Read more in the next issue

you can download the full text of the discussion

Recent years have been characterized by revolutionary changes in the production, distribution and consumption of information products, the main reason for which is the emergence and widespread use of digital forms of content presentation using the Internet. Both the mission of libraries, which is to accumulate and long-term preservation of information for future generations, are under threat, as well as the future of the library profession itself, whose representatives are losing their status as conductors in the world of information.

This publication concludes the discussion of the professors that has unfolded around the indicated problems. A.V. Sokolova (SPbGUKI) and VC. Stepanova (MGUKI).

Arkady Vasilievich SOKOLOV, Professor of the Department of Information Control and Multimedia Systems, St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts


I am against labeling, but I would like to call a spade a spade. Therefore, I cannot ignore the typical example of spontaneous positivism that Vadim Konstantinovich demonstrated in the previous dialogue. Here's this sample: “There are not so many stable laws in our essentially applied library activity. All of them, if desired, can be accommodated in one academic semester. The benefits and tasks of fundamental knowledge are obvious: they must form the correct conceptual understanding of the laws that determine the principles of the industry and the key directions of its development. However, laws and methodological approaches work only at the level of the most general strategy and never at the level of tactics and, moreover, of a specific methodology. No laws of Ranganathan or Bradford, the concept of Yu.N. Stolyarov or A.V. Sokolov will not answer the question "how?" How to create a modern effective information service system, how to attract readers, how to make optimal use of digital resources, etc. All these questions are answered by a methodology built on the basis of digital applications, for which the constant change of generations is a common routine. A specialist armed with a remarkable in his genius Wiener truism "information is information, not matter and not energy" a specific topic, is not a professional in the information industry. "

Let me remind you that positivism is a methodology of cognition that denies "philosophical metaphysics" and declares that genuine (positive) knowledge can be obtained only from experience, only through description and systematization of facts. Vadim Konstantinovich, in a completely positivist spirit, denies the value of "general strategic laws and methodological approaches" and affirms the priority of "tactics and specific methods." It seems to him that library and bibliographic science is overloaded with speculative metaphysics, which can be accommodated in one semester, and devote the remaining seven semesters to the study of technology built on the basis of digital applications of the Internet. As a result, he hopes to raise such specialists who will know “how to create a modern effective system of information services, how to attract readers, how to make optimal use of digital resources, etc.”, i.e. leaders who can lift libraries out of chronic crisis.

To be honest, I am somehow embarrassed to seriously refute the positivist delusions of a respected opponent. In order to "create a modern effective system of information services", you need to be a competent librarian and bibliographer, know the system of documentary and information, universal and industry resources, be able to determine the information needs of social groups, know the organization of library and bibliographic services, the methodology of library marketing and management ... In short, to study the cycle of professional disciplines, which is provided for in the curriculum for the preparation of bachelors in the direction of "Library and Information Activities" and which, as I understand (maybe I misunderstood?) Is proposed to be reduced to one semester. Positivism, instead of theories dealing with the identification of "laws that determine the principles of the industry and the key directions of its development," advises to master dynamic Internet technologies empirically (by examples), because there is no theory in this area, and educational materials become outdated two years after being released in light. As a result of this education, the library bachelor's degree will graduate not specialists in the library profile, but artisans of computer offices.

One theoretical physicist coined the saying "There is nothing more practical than a good theory." If you express your distrust in the library and bibliographic disciplines because they do not have a "good theory", I agree with you. Yes, we do not have a solid "post-non-classical library science", about which I have written many times.

But from this I draw a conclusion not in favor of positivism, but in favor of the development of the fundamental theory of library science and bibliography, the main subject of which, in my opinion, should be library humanism. By the way, your ironically estimated truism of the father of cybernetics Norbert Wiener “information is information, not matter and not energy” is actually not nonsense, but a philosophically correct definition of the essence of information: if information is immaterial, then it is ideal (there is no third option).

It is strange to consider someone a specialist in the field of library and information activities, if he did not understand the essence of information and did not understand whether it was a material "working body", or an ideal phenomenon. Based on the above, I have only one question for you:

Does the library survival strategist have a positivist uniform?

Vadim K. STEPANOV, Professor of the Department of Electronic Libraries, Information Technologies and Systems, Moscow State University of Culture and Arts


I don’t follow fashion, including philosophical, and therefore, having learned in what extravagant uniform I, it turns out, flaunt, for a moment I felt like the hero of Vysotsky’s song, who fought for the honor of the chess crown, not knowing the rules of the game, but “it turned out later - I was frightened to play the classic opening. " This "discovery", however, did not shake my conviction that views should be assessed for their compliance with the truth, the criterion of which is practice, and not belonging to any scientific school or grouping.

Since the previous commentary is replete with inaccuracies in the presentation of my views, I will clarify for the sake of a better indication of my position. First of all, I do not deny "general strategic laws and methodological approaches" that are necessary for library science. However, serious theoretical breakthroughs in library science that would give an unambiguous message or guideline for the activities of libraries somehow do not come to mind. For some reason, only the theory of Rubakin-Pokrovsky bridges and the definition of the essence and functions of bibliographic information by O.P. Korshunov. Fill in this annoying gap in my education by listing the methodological developments that have seriously influenced the views of librarians, the content and forms of their work.

I do not in any way reject the need for a "cycle of professional disciplines, which is provided for in the curriculum for training bachelors," although its current composition and content raise a lot of questions. At the same time, I insist on where this discussion began - the content of the majority special disciplines library complex should be updated at least once every two years, and sections that have a purely applied aspect, it is advisable to update every semester. To understand how such "textbooks" should look like, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the material published after the start of our discussion, January 27, 2013, in English. electronic journal Chronicle of Higher Education (chronicle.com/article/Dont-Call-Them-Textbooks/136835).

And, most importantly, about the definition of Wiener's information, who, if he left behind this definition alone, would have gone down in history. Its meaning is much deeper than simply stating the "ideality" of information. It seems that the ability to determine information through it itself came to Wiener's head due to the fact that information does not obey the laws of conservation of energy and mass / matter or the rule formulated in 1748 by Lomonosov, which in pseudo-scientific usage is known as the "law of conservation of matter and energy" ... If, according to Lomonosov, matter (matter) and energy, passing into other phases or into each other, retain the initial volume unchanged, then information does not possess such a property during propagation - it, as a rule, is constantly increasing, i.e. does not obey the aforementioned rule.

Such an interpretation of Wiener's definition is the best suited for a visual explanation of the digital information communications system, which has a different - ideal nature than the "analog" information infrastructure that existed before. Throughout the pre-digital history of mankind, knowledge (information, data) was distributed on material carriers that evolved over the eras from clay tablets to CDs. But in each case it was about the movement of material carriers, i.e. atoms of matter. They had to be produced from raw materials, physically moved to the consumer, stored and, in relation to libraries, ensured their issuance and return to the fund. The number of editions has always been limited. The given source, by definition, could not be claimed by other readers, in many libraries there was a shortage of copies, while in others there were superfluous ones. Otherwise, this system of documentary communications based on the transfer of atoms of matter could not function: how much it decreased in one place, exactly as much arrived in another.

The digital communications system operating on the basis of global computer networks has qualitatively different capabilities. Information in digital form, in strict accordance with Wiener's definition, does not obey the rule of conservation of matter and energy, since it is presented not in the form of atoms of matter, but in the form of streams of ones and zeros. Moving through computer networks, this data can reach any corner of the planet where there is access to the Internet in a split second. The scheme of production - distribution - storage of information is radically changing. A document in digital form posted on the site can be claimed by an unlimited number of users, while the volume of information on the donor site does not decrease - each user receives a self-generated digital copy. Circulation of the document equal to the number users who have contacted him; both overproduction and lack of copies of the source, its damage or theft are impossible. With all this, there are no huge costs for the production of raw materials, transportation, storage and circulation of sources. A new reality of information activity appears, confirming that information is information, not matter or energy.

Concluding the answer to this question-commentary, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in this new reality everything changes overnight, including the methodology, theory and methodology of information activity. It is completely unacceptable to approach its study using the standards of an analog communication system.

AND EVERYTHING, WHAT AND HOW TO DO?

A.V. Sokolov

Finally, let us return to the textbooks for library bachelors, the preparation of which the library and information school is currently busy with. Not so long ago, inspired poets celebrated the librarianship. Is not it. Oshanin wrote at one time: "Lovely quiet women, omniscient in books, shy in life." These days, violent intellectuals often describe the profession of "quiet women" as dying. Yes, the symptoms of professional depopulation are obvious: the outflow of young people, the dominance of pensioners, a shortage of highly qualified personnel ... Who should we address textbooks on humanistic goals and skills of orientation in the digital environment? I address them to smart students, of whom we have quite a few.

The fate of the library profession depends on what prevails in the soul of homo sapiens: the poetic magic of a book or the multimedia power of microelectronics. This is an unpredictable factor generated by the balance of technocratism and humanism in a technogenic civilization. But "quiet-voiced" intellectuals-scribes are able to influence this balance in the process of professional activity. And for this they need to be armed good textbooks that would explain to the digital librarian how to combine humanistic goals and applied library information skills. This is how I understand the practical purpose of the textbook "Analytical and synthetic processing of information", which you and I are co-authors of, dear Vadim Konstantinovich!

It's time to end our drawn-out dialogue. We have touched on, but, of course, did not solve too many vital problems concerning the present and future of Russian libraries. Despite its incompleteness, I find our controversy instructive and constructive. The general conclusion is that our views, in fact, are not opposite, but complementary. I focused on the goal of library and bibliographic activity in the information society, which I see in the implementation of a humanistic social mission, and my opponent emphasized the means in the form of applied professional skills of a digital librarian. I am convinced that informatization (computerization, internetization) of library activities is not a goal, but a means. This tool can be used in two ways: to perform an information function; for the realization of a humanistic mission. I believe that the existence of a library and bibliographic social institution in a technogenic civilization will be justified only if all library resources, both digitized and non-digitized, are aimed at reducing the risk of dehumanization (dehumanization) of society.

Summing up, what do you strongly disagree with in my position?

VC. Stepanov

For several centuries, poets have glorified the coachmen, which did not prevent the latter from sinking into oblivion with the change in transport infrastructure. It is hardly reasonable to rely on a favorable outcome of the struggle in the soul of homo sapiens - throughout its evolution, the pragmatist who responds to him, sapiens, always prevailed. vital interests, to which humanism, unfortunately, was extremely rare.

As for the "quiet-voiced" librarians, even some 25-30 years ago there was every reason to admire them: for many readers, these people were true guides and guides to the world of high spiritual values. A certain flair of sublimity naturally lay on the librarians - every day they revolved among the true revelations of the soul and the immortal works of the mind. This undoubtedly ennobled the essence of the librarian profession and the very image of the librarian.

However, technological progress is rapidly changing the informational, cultural, educational and any other landscape, and in this new system of relations, librarians irrevocably lose their authority as initiates into certain heights inaccessible to others - the scarcity of information has been replaced by its sharp overproduction and, importantly, "transparency". "Omniscience" is no longer inherent in librarians - only shyness remains. And yet - confusion caused by a lack of understanding of which of the “reading rooms” that Lev Oshanin saw as “temples”, the readers have lost, why do we continue to collect the funds of the reading rooms and conduct the SBA units, which have long become an atavism. And there was also growing concern. But not about how to better realize your humanistic mission, but about how to prevent a drop in reporting indicators, which, in spite of everything, for some reason should constantly grow. This picture, alas, has become the norm for many libraries in the country, and as the Internet penetrates further, it will only get worse.

But where the end is, there is the beginning. And the first thing that is necessary is to understand that the fate of libraries and the library profession depends not on the outcome of the struggle in the souls of homo sapiens, but on whether the libraries themselves will be able to offer the services required by a dynamically changing society. Therefore, the main question for every library today is: what and how to offer to the served audience. In previous comments, I have already spoken about what libraries should be doing today and tomorrow. Summarizing the position, I will highlight the areas of work in which, in my deep conviction, genuine library humanism is expressed. This, the gist:

Competent selection to the fund of sources that are worthy of reading, viewing or listening to the readers of a particular library;
- assistance to readers in solving problems related to the search and assessment of the information they need and, possibly, assistance in posting the results of their own research on the Web (the latter task is inherent exclusively in academic libraries);
- dissemination of information culture, an integral element of which is the ability to recognize and resist manipulation of the consciousness of an individual or a social group;
- creation of a creative atmosphere that stimulates the cognitive activity of library visitors.

The answer to your final question- with which I strongly disagree in your position, - I will deliberately sharpen the problem - I do not agree with the humanism in your performance. I see him as extremely amorphous, passive and extremely unproductive. Despite its seemingly initial irrefutability (who would argue that humanity should become kinder and smarter, and libraries should contribute to this in every possible way), the humanistic approach does not at all reveal the true understanding of the reasons for the current decline in the role of libraries and does not arm the community with knowledge of how this decline overcome. Worse, having singled out the idea that the spontaneous humanism of librarians stems from their proximity to books, many workers in the library field identify the decline of print publishing as a total assault on certain humanistic ideals. They see the digital communication system not as another natural stage in the evolution of the documentary communication system, but as the invasion of a soulless digital monster into the book world they are used to. The response to this invasion is, in most cases, paralysis of will, accompanied by vague hopes-statements that, de, "there will be enough books for our age."

Unfortunately, throughout the discussion, it was not indicated in what actions, and even better - specific processes - humanism should be expressed: how exactly libraries should deal with it, how the results of such work should be measured, how library humanism differs from museum, educational, theatrical and others? It is not difficult to declare high aspirations. But they are nothing if the ways and methods of realizing this worthy task, over which religions of all confessions, the education sector, most areas of contemporary art and a relatively small number of media, have been working for millennia, are not shown. In its current form, the "humanistic mission" of libraries is, alas, more like a tower, sitting on top of which, a famous Gogol character was going to drink tea and admire Moscow.

A huge number of librarians like the feeling of being spontaneous humanists, in whom you consciously cultivate the confidence that they are good only because they work in libraries. Regardless of the fact that the services of libraries are used less and less. Proud of this consciousness, librarians are in no way aimed at a serious revision of their work - "cleaning the sheds": the devastation in their heads naturally generates devastation in their libraries. I apologize for the excessive abundance of literary images, but many of today's librarians resemble the landowner Ranevskaya, forced to sell for debts the cherry orchard in which her best years passed. But, since this garden is so dear, it was necessary to spend energy, time, life itself on it. I didn't think about it, there was no desire, skill, or something else - the garden would go for plots for summer residents - there will be lopakhins.

I confess that I do not have a ready-made plan to save the world from a humanitarian catastrophe. I do not know how to rid all of humanity from the consumerist view of the world, to reconcile nations and religions, to eradicate greed, envy, money-grubbing and stupidity. But I know how to make the people around me a little better in my everyday life. To do this, you need to attach them to the good and reasonable, support them in striving for the lofty, help them climb to new levels of understanding themselves and the world, and sometimes give them a shoulder or a hand. All this, to the best of their ability, libraries could and can do. In both the analog and digital world. Only today it is necessary to make much more effort to do this: the pace of life has increased incredibly, and the textbook librarian from the cartoon "Vovka in the Farthest Kingdom" is more appropriate to explain to the unreasonable hero that Google and Wikipedia do not know the answers to all questions. And what is the answer to the main question: how to become and remain human? - can help to find books and films, paintings and music, it does not matter, printed (analogue) or electronic.

In conclusion, I would like to call you to an effective humanism with a specific goal and task. Use your unconditional talent and high authority to prove, with figures and facts, irrefutably and universally to the current Russian government at all levels that spiritually rich and intellectually developed citizens are certainly more profitable for the country than the crowds of Klim Chugunkins, who are absolutely unable to develop the economy. , culture, science and education, to provide defense, to maintain the authority and even the integrity of the country. It is difficult to imagine more difficult and more responsible tasks today, and the future of our country largely depends, without exaggeration, on its solution.

This means the future of its libraries.

____________________________

1. I will list the general professional disciplines of the standard curriculum, since they show the scientific level of modern library and bibliographic knowledge: records management, library science, library collection, library and information services, bibliography, bibliographic activity of the library, reference and retrieval apparatus, analytical and synthetic processing of information, industry information resources, management of library and information activities , marketing of library and information activities, linguistic means of library and information technologies.

2. Sokolov A.V. Library decalogue of the beginning of the XXI century - a challenge to post-non-classical library science // Bibliotekovedenie. - 2008. - No. 1. - S. 25-28.

3. Until now, disputes around the nature and essence of information, started by N. Wiener, continue. In the current year, the book of informatics-materialists I.M. Gurevich and A.D. Ursula "Information is a universal property of matter" (Moscow: LIBROKOM, 2013. - 312 p.)

4. Do not propose Ranganathan's "laws". No one.

5. In my youth, I myself was so sincerely carried away by this idea of ​​Manilov that for a long time I did not recognize his role as “ dead soul". I liked him. Only over the years did I realize that idealism, sterile and completely divorced from real life, is akin to the vices of other heroes of the poem.

To narrow your search results, you can refine your query by specifying the fields to search for. The list of fields is presented above. For example:

You can search by several fields at the same time:

Logical operators

The default operator is AND.
Operator AND means that the document must match all elements in the group:

research development

Operator OR means that the document must match one of the values ​​in the group:

study OR development

Operator NOT excludes documents containing given element:

study NOT development

Search type

When writing a request, you can specify the way in which the phrase will be searched. Four methods are supported: search with morphology, without morphology, search for a prefix, search for a phrase.
By default, the search is performed taking into account the morphology.
To search without morphology, just put a dollar sign in front of the words in the phrase:

$ study $ development

To search for a prefix, you need to put an asterisk after the request:

study *

To search for a phrase, you need to enclose the query in double quotes:

" research and development "

Search by synonyms

To include the word synonyms in the search results, put a hash " # "before a word or before an expression in parentheses.
When applied to one word, up to three synonyms will be found for it.
When applied to a parenthesized expression, a synonym will be appended to each word if found.
Cannot be combined with non-morphology search, prefix search, or phrase search.

# study

Grouping

In order to group search phrases, you need to use brackets. This allows you to control the boolean logic of the request.
For example, you need to make a request: find documents whose author is Ivanov or Petrov, and the title contains the words research or development:

Approximate word search

For an approximate search, you need to put a tilde " ~ "at the end of a word from a phrase. For example:

bromine ~

The search will find words such as "bromine", "rum", "prom", etc.
You can additionally specify the maximum number of possible edits: 0, 1 or 2. For example:

bromine ~1

By default, 2 edits are allowed.

Proximity criterion

To search by proximity, you need to put a tilde " ~ "at the end of a phrase. For example, to find documents with the words research and development within 2 words, use the following query:

" research development "~2

Expression Relevance

Use " ^ "at the end of the expression, and then indicate the level of relevance of this expression in relation to the rest.
The higher the level, the more relevant the expression is.
For example, in this expression, the word "research" is four times more relevant than the word "development":

study ^4 development

By default, the level is 1. Allowed values ​​are a positive real number.

Interval search

To indicate the interval in which the value of a field should be located, you should specify the boundary values ​​in brackets, separated by the operator TO.
Lexicographic sorting will be performed.

Such a query will return results with an author ranging from Ivanov to Petrov, but Ivanov and Petrov will not be included in the result.
To include a value in an interval, use square brackets. Use curly braces to exclude a value.

Basov Sergey Alexandrovich, Head of the Scientific and Methodological Department of Library Science of the Russian National Library, Member of the Council of the Russian Library Association, Cand. ped. sciences

Well, finally, A.V. Sokolov was able to test his own theory about the division of the educated and creative part of the library mankind into intellectuals and intellectuals... There was a daredevil who was not afraid to leave the community of the “last saints” (according to D.S. Likhachev) and throw the “bitter truth” in our face: the number displaces the information-paper archaism from everywhere, integrates into all spheres of life, for it gives “higher productivity with much lower costs. " We need to change or die. well just rational economic man, or - let's say more elegantly - an intellectual, our library Chubais. Vadim Stepanov.

The discussion turned out to be excellent - I applaud Elena Beilina; after all, it is not easy to light such different worlds in one fire.

Make better myself, or do better myself?

The debates touched upon the deepest nerve of library activity, its nature and essence. Their argument is a continuation of my own reflections on what phenomena the library belongs to in its essence? Is the library, figuratively speaking, "civilization" or "culture"?

The concept of civilization is usually associated with the level of development of production and productive forces, a change in technology. It has already become a tradition to distinguish three stages of the civilizational development of society: agrarian, industrial and postindustrial. The civilization of the third stage (or the third wave according to E. Toffler), starting from the second half of the twentieth century, is called "technotronic", "innovative", "information society". Civilization can (with a certain degree of simplification) be identified with scientific and technological progress, which is a manifestation of human power over natural conditions your being. It is in this sense that civilization is opposed by the spiritual life of society, its culture. According to the philosopher M.S. Kagan, in an industrial society, the conflict between scientific and technological progress, inextricably linked with the economy, and the spiritual, moral, religious, and artistic potential of culture is constantly deepening and exacerbating. It follows that the separation of the concepts of “culture” and “civilization” is not a whim of theorists, but an attempt to describe the fundamental contradictions of human life in the era of total technization of being. Experts note that at present we are witnessing the confrontation between two opposing approaches aimed at shaping the personality - humanistic and authoritarian-technocratic. Self-realization of a person can be carried out under the influence of programs coming from both civilization and culture.

Zobov R.A., Kelasev V.N. Human knowledge: human self-realization. SPb. 2008.S. 367.

It would be good for all of us (and not only Stepanov) to understand that humanity develops not only by creating (creating) its own being by a combination of material and social factors, it also develops by searching for the meanings of being , knowing it and appreciating it. Culture shapes society's perception of its past and present, evaluates the choice of means for creating the future. If civilization "operates" with a question how(in what way), then the culture "poses" the question why(What's the point). Civilization is basically technological, culture is axiological. Civilization is the desire to do better myself and culture - to do better myself ... There is a permanent "conflict" between these vectors in the development of man and society, in the resolution of which both individuals and social institutions - including the library and librarians - are involved.

The amazing writer Fazil Iskander once expressed the following thought: “All world history- this is a struggle between the mind and wisdom, civilization against culture. "

² Iskander F. Collection. Goats and Shakespeare. M., 2007.S. 375.

Here in our discussion -

The opponents argued in earnest.

Lumps of two worldviews collided ...

(L. Filatov)

Proceeding from this view of the discussion, it becomes clear (at least to me) that Stepanov, suggesting that the library run "faster than Alice", is in the grip of technocratic illusions. He took his digital strategy for reality and does not even ask the question - why does the library need this, and who benefits from such a race. It would be nice to understand: do we need to keep up with the technology update or the "update" of the needs of the person walking past the library? When he sees a new "gadget" will he stop and enter under the vaults? Does the library need all the ICTs that are in demand on the market? I'm sure: information like shadows in the famous fairy tale by E. Schwartz, should "Know your place" , remain a tool to meet the socio-cultural needs of a person and society.

Stepanov is a utopian, partly a messiah, and somewhere a fanatic. Hears himself much better than others. He created his ideal digital world, where Steve Jobs does prayer: iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, iPad ... Ay, Vadim Konstantinovich, what kind of world do you live in? Is productivity the main indicator of the development of society? In addition to the ICT Development Index, there is human development index and even international happiness index(Russia, by the way, ranks 172 out of 178 countries). There are countries poorer than us, but happier. Remember Ilf: “in science fiction novels the main thing was the radio. Under him, the happiness of humanity was expected. There is a radio, but there is no happiness. "

With his naive belief in the digital future, Vadim Konstantinovich reminded me of Dmitry Anatolyevich with his aspiration for new technologies and e-government. More recently, he promised (the word of the president!) Back in 2012 to bring the Internet to every public library, but so far a little more than 25 percent have this "happiness". I do not even mention state fairy tales such as "Information Society-2020", Sokolov quite convincingly said about them. True, Stepanov did not hear him: they say this is a technological program, only talks about infrastructure, and therefore there is no book or reading there. This is a trick: if you mentioned society in the name of the document, then you should correspond: consider it in all its multidimensionality, as the classics taught.

Social construction of three ... practices

Let's take a closer look at Stepanov's thoughts about new things in and denying the library. In it, "absolutely everything will change dramatically" (terrible, isn't it?). Except for one thing: “It will retain its millennial authority as an institution that has absorbed the wisdom of generations, which is a true bulwark of light, goodness and meaning” (and I like that!). It turned out very ambivalently: to change everything, keeping the best. Maybe Stepanov is not hopeless, since he sincerely sees in the library "a bulwark of light, goodness and meaning"? After all, he agrees with Sokolov's opinion that "the diseases of society are treated not by information technologies, but by socio-cultural transformations."

Why then change "absolutely everything" in the library, Stepanov? Leave Pushkin to us, don't throw him off the library ship of our time! It will still come in handy. The library will introduce the reader to it, using not one (as you want), but all three their communication practices:

- oral

- book (documentary)

- electronic (digital)

Consider these three pillars of library service. There are only three of them - neither add nor subtract. With their help, the philosophy of the new library is formed and innovative practices are created. At the same time, book and oral communication are like two lungs that the Library has been breathing with for several hundred years. What is happening with the library breath in our time, with the arrival of the electronic environment in the library, remains to be understood.

So why impoverish the library in advance, giving priority and preference to "digital"? The same inertia, limitation, stagnation. No information service will supplant the library if we properly assess and use diversity capabilities of all library practices.

With the help of a social configuration of three practices, we will plug in any information structure that hones only one - digital. It's so great when, depending on the type and type of library, the category of readers, we create multidimensional library spaces - from people, books and even digital gadgets. It is especially valuable that such an approach revives any library - both the presidential one (which has yet to recognize itself as a library) and the most deaf, rural one, lost in a bear's corner, where there are no "film screens", but where people go with their fates and problems. Stepanov is completely wrong when he asserts that "a librarian who does not have a powerful computer and reliable access to the network cannot be considered good, since both one and the other are the primary tools of his labor." Let me be a retrograde, but I will fight for the living word of the librarian to become in the digital age the first "tool of labor" of the librarian.

Take a look, colleagues. Under the powerful pressure of modern civilization, a person increasingly feels disoriented in the social space. It is not for nothing that the prominent sociologist and futurologist D. Bell calls our time "the era of disunity." There are signs of a global crisis of man, his picture of the universe. Russia is not following the path of building an information society; it faces the threat of savagery, new barbarism and degradation. More and more scientists (but not politicians) are aware of the need and are raising the question of the need for a humanistic turn in Russia - in politics, economics, and spiritual life. The stake is the very existence of our Motherland.

Services and public goods

The fundamental problems faced by any human community can be grouped into two main groups, expressing the need to meet the immediate needs of people, as well as the maintenance of the social system itself as a whole.

³ Markaryan E.S. Cultural theory and modern science. M., 1983, S. 65.

To maintain the stability of society, a balance of regulators is needed, coming both from the state and from the interests of the person. It is necessary to distinguish between two relatively independent classes of tasks facing the library: these are tasks associated with the development of society as a whole and tasks emanating from an individual. In accordance with this approach, it is necessary to distinguish services that the library provides to a person (reader, subscriber, consumer) and public goods, which the library system of the country creates in the interests of the whole society. Here we enter the field of socio-cultural understanding of the library, its cult-creating functions. This is where the dividing line lies between the concept of Stepanov's library and the concept of Sokolov's library. The question is in the relationship between information functions (services) and the mission of the library (production of public goods).

From my point of view, library service has a twofold essence, it dual in nature, because it relies on two types of activity: informational and sociocultural, which in practice give rise to two relatively independent types of library activity. They can be compared according to the criterion "service time". The time for information service - from receiving a request to issuing a document - should tend to zero. The consumer is inclined to minimize his time spent on searching for information, and even refuse the services of a librarian in favor of technical means. And the time of socio-cultural joint activity in the space of the library should tend to infinity. Ideally, this is a time of live communication between readers and librarians. For only sociocultural activity transforms a person into a full-fledged personality. The library can and should be "sociable". This is the manifestation of her cultural strategy, creativity aimed at a specific reader. And one should not be afraid of turning the library into a club (in fact, a club, that is, a voluntary association of people according to their interests, this is the future of humanity if it follows the humanistic path; but this idea requires a separate discussion).

The duality of library services, understood in a philosophical sense as the unity of opposites, is the driving force behind the development of the library as a social system. I want to emphasize that this contradiction reflects the "struggle" of these types of activity as a movement towards their synthesis, harmony.

The contradiction between the informational and sociocultural activity of the library can be viewed as a branch law of library activity, the violation of which inevitably leads to the loss (change) of the essence of the social institution called the library. As soon as live communication “leaves” the library, as a carrier of education and culture, it turns into a “pure” information organ, and “withdrawal” from the library of a document (the reader's access to the document) turns the library into a club. These two types of activity will always necessarily be found in the work of libraries of all types and kinds. Moreover, their ratio and forms of implementation can vary within wide limits. This law provides the broadest field for the creative activity of the librarian. And Stepanov does not need to return us to the archaic idea of ​​the library as a monofunctional (informational) institution.

A spoon of tar

AV Sokolov, summing up the results of the discussion, considered the views of the debaters not opposite, but complementary. The thesis about the humanism of goals and the manufacturability of the means to achieve them deserves a very careful consideration. It seems that a common platform has been found to harmonize the positions of intellectuals and intellectuals.

V.K. Stepanov, for his part, did not correctly sum up the results of the discussion. It turned out that he longs for "victory" at any cost, pretends to appear in the eyes of the public as an ideologist and ruler of thoughts. At least that's how I read his final tirade.

As a result of the discussion - an offensive fly in the ointment. In his "last word" Stepanov suddenly betrayed his own version of humanism, and frankly kicked Sokolov for the alleged passivity, amorphousness and unproductiveness of his position. And he also called for effective humanism! My eyes were on my forehead: a demagogue or a hypocrite? Jabbering during the whole discussion with technological pieces of iron such as: “digital is more productive, and therefore more needed” by society, at the end Stepanov dresses up in the humanistic clothes of his opponent, and begins, as it were, to beat the “enemy” with his own weapon. The final tirade sounds like a morality, which is absolutely unacceptable in a professional discussion, especially with a person who is both older and more authoritative than you. Stepanov teaches Sokolov humanism! If someone told me that, I would not believe it. A disgusting aftertaste, alas ... I have to state a moral pathology: it seems to be in the blood of the technocrats.

Academic degree: Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences

Academic title: Assistant professor

Work experience in the specialty: 34

Total work experience: 40

General scientific and pedagogical experience: 31

Education:

  • Moscow State Institute of Culture with ex. KB No. 542266 in 1986, Postgraduate studies in 1989.
Diploma specialty:
  • Library Science and Bibliography
Diploma qualification:
  • Librarian-bibliographer.
Training:
  • MGIK, "Modern information technologies in educational process", 24h., 2016
  • MGIK, "Improving the professional training of higher school teachers", 72 hours, 2019
Places of work:

Practical work in libraries:

  • Chief Librarian, Automation Division
  • State Public Historical Library, 1996 - 2001
  • Senior Research Fellow, Library Network Division
    Russian State Library, 1993 - 1994

    Research Fellow, Automation Department, Central Scientific Agricultural Library, 1991 - 1993

Awards and achievements:
  • Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation
  • Honorary Diploma All-Russian competition scientific works on library science, bibliography and bibliology 1998.
  • Special diploma of the II All-Russian competition for the best scientific work of young scientists and specialists in the field of librarianship (1997).
The main scientific publications, educational publications:

Books

    Stepanov, V. K. Methods for assessing the information literacy of a librarian working in a digital environment [Text] / V. K. Stepanov; Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Interdepartmental Working Group for Development. proposals for innovative development b-k, Russian state. b-ka. - Moscow: Pashkov House, 2016 .-- 255 p. ill., color ill., portr., table; 30 cm - (Innovation in Libraries).

    Stepanov, V. K. Kitabxana proseslərində internetdən istifadə / V. K. Stepanov. - Bakı: Şərq-Qərb Nəşriyyat Evi, 2015 .-- 272 səh. - (http://www.azlibnet.az/pdf/newbooks/kprii.pdf). Date of treatment 10/19/2018.

    Stepanov, V. K. Manifesto of libraries of the digital era [Electronic resource]. - (http://www.calameo.com/read/0034547383b7da70af379). Date of treatment 10/19/2018.

    Analytical and synthetic information processing [Text]: textbook / A. V. Sokolov, N. I. Gendina, V. K. Stepanov et al. - St. Petersburg: Profession, 2013. - 336 p.

    Stepanov, V. K. Application of the Internet in library processes [Text]: [book + DVD] / V. K. Stepanov. - Moscow: Litera, 2013 .-- 320 p.

    Stepanov, V.K. Aқparatttyk Kyzmette Internetty paidalanu [Mәtin]: oқu-distemelik құral / V.K.Stepanov; aud. Sh. N. Sagybaeva; Kitapkhanashylardyң Shyғys Kazakstandy oblystyқ қauymdastyғy. - Өskemen: b. f., 2009 .-- 232 b.

    Development of professional competence in the field of ICT [Electronic resource]: basic training course / M. V. Moiseeva, V. K. Stepanov, E. D. Patarakin, A. D. Ishkov and others - Moscow: Publishing house. house "Teaching-Service", 2008. - 256 p., 32 ill. - (http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/ru/files/3214661.pdf). Date of treatment 10/19/2018.

    Electronic Libraries in education [Electronic resource]: the program of specialized training course/ V.K.Stepanov, M.V. Moiseeva - Moscow: Publishing house. house "Teaching-Service", 2006. - 16 p. - (http://iite.unesco.org/pics/publications/ru/files/3214657.pdf). Date of treatment 10/19/2018.

    Stepanov, V. K. Application of the Internet in professional information activities [Text] / V. K. Stepanov. - Moscow: Publishing house FAIR, 2009 .-- 304 p.

    Stepanov, VK Application of the Internet in information activities [Electronic resource]: an interactive textbook. - Moscow: 2003. - (http://textbook.vadimstepanov.ru). Date of treatment 10/19/2018.

    Stepanov, V. K. Internet for librarians [Text]: practical lessons/ V. K. Stepanov; ed. S. I. Samsonov. - Moscow: Libereya, 1998 .-- 64 p. : ill. - (With a computer on "you"; Issue 2).

    Materials for the Index of Russian Spiritual Literature 1801 - 1992 [Text] / All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature. M. I. Rudomino; Synodal Library of the Moscow Patriarchate. - Moscow: Rudomino, 1994 .-- 63 p.

    Index of materials about Moscow churches, published in the journal "Moscow Diocesan Gazette - Moscow Church Gazette (1869 - 1918)" [Text] / comp .: N. V. Vlasova, S. P. Prokhorova, V. K. Stepanov; bibliography ed. V.K.Stepanov. - Moscow: 1993 .-- 213 p.

Scientific and creative projects:
  • Russian reference library (http://library.vadimstepanov.ru)
  • Internet in professional information activities: Interactive textbook (http://textbook.vadimstepanov.ru)

Disciplines:
  • Bibliographic activity of libraries;
  • reference and retrieval apparatus of the library;
  • linguistic means of library and information technologies;
  • Computer technologies in science and education,
  • Computer science;
  • Information networks and systems;
  • Information technology ABIT;
  • Information and multimedia technologies in museum work;
  • Information technology in museum work;
  • Foundations of modern communications.