Library and challenges of time: globalization, digitization, netization Library and challenges of time: globalization, digitization, netization

The history of the library as a sociocultural institution counts for more than one century. This presupposes certain conservatism of its value foundations, technologies and functions. However, today, in the period of swift change of technical, economic and value paradigms, library, as never before, needs to reconsider its own priorities. Library activities are intensively transforming under information and communication influence, intruding in all spheres of life and constructing social reality, absolutely differing from the previous one, which name is - the information society. Digital technologies have great influence upon library activities, infinitely widening the possibilities of this public institution, motivating it to reconsider its social mission, changing its genetic essence. What are nowadays the main libraries' values, what constitutes their mission, are they needed in their traditional image - these questions become especially actual and debatable for the professional community. The character of professional discussions demonstrates dissimilarity and even discrepancy of notions about basic library functions in the information world, while the answer to this question has to them not simply functional but ontological meaning and, as a result, defines scientific and disciplinary status of library science, goals and ideology of the library social institution, its value-sense orientations. The article states that influence of the modern global information environment on library activities is not homogeneous. On the one hand, this environment gives wide possibilities for to satisfy the users' needs - mainly owing to modern electronic technique and communication means, on the other hand - gives rise to, specifically, such negative phenomena as information inequality and “erosion” of national culture, first, the linguistic one. Information streams growing intensiveness combines with sharp fall of their quality and, resulting in drop in intellectual and spiritual users' evolution, appearance of a new anthropological species - homo informaticus, which, being equipped with individual arrangements for mobile access to the whole diversity of digital information resources, is alien to the values of book culture. Libraries should satisfy homo informaticus' needs, using all modern informatization means. However, the main priority of their activity, equal with qualitative information servicing, is defending information society from the real threat of de-humanization.

Keywords

Authors

References