PHILOSOPHY OF LIBRARIANSHIP.
Introduction:
‘PHILOSOPHY’ means and inquiry into truth. ‘Philosophy of a subject denotes the principles underlying it. It provides its aims, hand, means the conscious collection of facts and data; their interpretation by defining, analyzing and classifying them; their explanation by reasoning and the formation of crystal laws for determining their value. ‘Philosophy is concerned with the abstract principles of a subject while ‘Science’ deals mainly with concrete data and fact. It indicates those fundamental principles upon which all the practices, techniques and activities of librarianship are based.
Its value:
Each developed science, natural as well as society has got a sound theoretic discipline of its own which forms the core of its Philosophy. The main reason for the development of such science is existence of a philosophy of their own. The advantages of having a philosophy for a subject may be as follows:
< It helps in clearly interpreting the purposes of the subject of study.
< It helps to find solutions to various practical problems.
< It focuses attention to major issues.
< It is instrumental in providing a definite and recognized place for the subject.
< It provides a sense of professional unity.
< It provides a sense of professional unity.
< It provides means for proper job-analysis in libraries.
Need of Philosophy for Librarianship:
Some people say that librarianship being a practical subject needs no philosophy. Still others would say that making philosophy for librarianship is not the job of librarians. Many persons argue that philosophy being an abstract idea would not lead the research workers to any concrete results and it will cause inefficiency in the profession.
But it is undeniable that librarianship does require a plausible philosophy. This is a patent fact that due to lack of proper enunciation f the tenets and principles which underlie librarianship, this profession has suffered a lot in spite of tact that that has been serving a fundamental purpose.
Kinds of Philosophy:
ØPractical Philosophy: Cyril O Houle states that ‘a philosophy of librarianship should be a practical philosophy, contrasting it with the philosophy of nature, which seeks to discover what nature is. For supporting his view, he further gives the following three propositions:
? A philosophy which is practical achieves valid meaning only in term of its operation.
?`A code of ethics has relevance and force only if it is carried out in lives and actions of people.
?Similarly a practical philosophy of librarianship has its fullest meaning when it is evolved and operates to guide the actions of the individual librarian or the group of librarians who are working together in a single institution.
ØDeductive Philosophy:
Another view is quite opposite to the practical one. It puts more emphasis upon theoretical study than that of the learning of specific jobs as parts. The protagonists of this idea argue that if the underlying ideas of the whole subject are clear, the various parts can be understood properly and the practical results would be better. It is called Deductive Philosophy.
Practice of librarianship can be properly effective only if it is based on carefully developed and integrated principles. Principles and theory are given more importance over practice and technique.
ØInductive Philosophy:
Inductive Philosophy Implies the use of particular data, its observation, derivation of rough conclusions, framing of crystallised principles and their application for practical purpose. Some persons call it as Evolutionary. According to K. Ramakrishna Rao a library operating in a problematic situation needs some practical and operative solutions. Those which survive take the shape of theoretical principles.
ØSocial Philosophy:
Pierce Butler in his book stated that, ``Books are the social mechanism for preserving the racial memory and the library one social apparatus for transferring this to the consciousness of living individuals’’. In other words, It means that library is a part of the society and it is a limp which can remain alive only if the whole social body is alive.
The philosophy of librarianship should provide in index to the ideals of the society. There is a nucleus of all social activities and the philosophy of such an institution should be compatible with the ideal of his society, because it has been created for the society and by the society. The kind of philosophy may be called ‘Social Philosophy or Reflexive as K. Ramkrishna Rao calls it. He states, `` Libraries do not grow in vacuum, they function is societies. So their functions are determined by social forces.’’
Ø Philosophy of Librarianship:
Librarian’s profession being multifocal should try to contain the basic ideas of all these fore approaches so that a wholesome and workable philosophy is ensured. In view of this fact, the philosophy of librarianship should include the following:
Ø Fountain of Truth:
A library is a repository of wisdom of great thinkers of the pat and the present. Its motto should be to serve as a ‘Fountain of Truth’. An ideal librarian should not worry for criticism from the interested quarters of politicians. This he can do by bringing home to the critics a situation which may arise if the latter have to face an opposition party government. He should tell them that since right imply duties, so a person should be tolerant of others’ views and should rather respect their views if we want that his rights are not to be tampered with.
ØAccess to the Best Thought of the world:
It should be and ideal of a librarian to afford the readers an access to the best thought of the world so that they may develop their personality to the full by putting into practice the best ideas given by great thinkers.
The librarians should acquire and make available to the readers all the classics and standard works of eminent authors without bothering that they belong to one group or the other. The motto should be ‘impersonal service’ in most impersonal wav.
Ø Market Place of Ideas:-
It is said the World War II was won by the libraries in United States. The provision of new ideas which can be possible by making accessible the latest reading materials to the people, the libraries should serve as ‘Intellectual Service Stations’. It means the that the librarian’s mental development should be of such a high level that he understands the intellectual needs of the readers and makes proper arrangements for meeting them adequately.
ØService of the Community:
The motto of a librarian should be ‘Service Before Self’. In other word, a librarian should sacrifice his everything for serving his clientele. Besides this, the librarian is also a constituent part of the community in which he lives. He owes a debt to such a community. He cannot have any existence without the community. So he must serve his community in a proper manner. Every Individual serves the community in his own way. The librarian does so by providing right type of knowledge to the constituent individuals of the society.
A nation is bound to provide best opportunities to its citizens to develop their personalities. A librarian has got the responsibility of providing facilities to the citizens to make the best use of their leisure time which is other wise wasted in superfluous pursuits. He can channelise the energies of the people in fight directions by converting them into potential readers.
ØCreating Reading Habit:
A librarian is the person who created interest amongst his readers by his subtle methods. He is bound to sustain this reading habit if tangible results are to be got. This can be done by continually providing the best reading materials. Those librarians, who neglect their existing clients’ needs, would prove very harmful to the profession and the society. So it would be befitting to state that it is tolerable if few persons are converted into regular readers instead of creating new readers by the use of emotional appeals to their better sense and neglecting them altogether afterwards. The latter course will put the library into disrepute.
ØSelf education:
A library’s purpose should be to provide self-education instead of formal education which is the function of the schools, colleges and universities. Attaining knowledge is a life long process and the library must prove a right type of agency for this purpose.
ØLove of Books:
A librarian, who does not live books, cannot become a successful librarian just as an engineer who does not take care to learn the use of the tools of his trade. A person who is not well-read, and has no research inclination, cannot prove a good librarian. He should take proper steps to protect the books from bookworms and other enemies of the books. Further, this love would be complete only if he strives his hard to introduce the book to their paramours-the reader, so that every book finds its real lover.
ØLove of Humanity:
The librarian must know his clients thoroughly he must know their likes and dislikes at least in the literary fields so that he provides them with the right type of materials. By ‘love of humanity’ is meant that the librarian really gets pleasure in knowing the readers. Further, the librarian should consider all the readers alike without any distinction of caste, creed, sex or religion.
ØLove of knowledge:
Third element of a library is its staff. The librarian should himself be a learned person. He should appreciate the view-points of his readers and research scholars. He should basically feel pleasure in attaining knowledge and should try to advance the knowledge of his readers by giving right type of interpretations. He should respect those people who are knowledge seekers.
Ø Conclusion:
In short, the philosophy of librarianship, whether it is practical, theoretical, pervasive or evolutionary, implies that librarianship is a noble profession. It should impart knowledge to the ignorant and remove his darkness through enlightenment.
Dr. Ranganathan says, ‘It (Librarianship) is a noble profession. A librarian derives his joy seeing the dawn of joy in the face of the readers helped by him to find the right book at the right time.
