Library Services in Theory and Context

Chapter 1: Plan

Intention

The intention of this book is to advance a conceptual framework for considering library services. It is not asserted that what follows constitutes a complete framework, but rather an attempt to take a step toward the development of a framework. The motivation is both intellectual and pragmatic. At an intellectual level, there is curiosity about the nature of things and about how—and why—they work. At a pragmatic level, there is the incentive that a clearer theoretical understanding might bring greater effectiveness in practice.

Theory brings insights, but there is no guarantee that theory will be helpful in practice. Bad theory may bring false and misleading insights, good theory brings helpful insights. However, theory, once developed, can, in general, be tested—and inadequate theory rejected. A necessary condition for progress, then, is to propose theory so that it can be tested.

Organization

In seeking to propose a theoretical framework for library services, the text has been organized as a logical progression in the following stages:

Part 1. Introduction

The intention and general arrangement of the book are outlined in chapter 1, and some basic problems in librarianship are identified in chapter 2:

• How do the different facets of librarianship relate to one another?
• Why do library services differ from each other from one context to another?
• Why aren't libraries used more?
• How should catalogs and retrieval systems be evaluated?
• How big should a library be?
• How do libraries survive?
• What is "goodness" with respect to library services?

It is asserted that it is lack of theory which causes these questions to be and to remain—problems.

The scope and probable nature of appropriate theory are defined in chapters 3, 4, and 5.

Part II: Analysis

Five key aspects of the provision and use of library services are analyzed:

• Inquiries (chapter 6)
• Retrieval (chapters 7 and 8)
• The process of becoming informed (Chapter 9)
• The demand for library services (chapter 10)
• The allocation of resources to and within library services (chapters I I and 12)

Part III: Connections and Extensions

After the separate examination of five key aspects of library service in Part II, Part III seeks to view library service as a whole from various perspectives. To what extent could they be regarded as constituting a "system" (chapter 13)? The problem of achieving internal consistency in such a complex situation (chapter 14), the diverse dimensions of "access" to knowledge (chapter 15), measurement (chapter 16), the role of technology (chapter 17), long-term change (chapter 18), and the generalizability of this conceptual framework to other information services (chapter 19) are considered.

Part IV. Some Problems Reconsidered

Some of the basic conceptual problems of library services which were noted in Part I are reconsidered in terms of the ideas discussed in Parts II and III: the relationships between the parts; why libraries differ; criteria for the evaluation of retrieval systems; optimal library size; the internal coherence and consistency of library services; and the nature of library goodness.

Although an evenly balanced overview is desirable, some topics have been given more attention than others. This unevenness derives from two considerations:

1. The development of theory with respect to library services is itself uneven. For example, little seems to be known about how users come to formulate the inquiries which they bring to libraries.
2. Some topics need a longer and more careful exposition than others in order to describe them adequately. For example, the discussion of censorship issues in chapter 11 (Allocation) is much briefer than the treatment of nonmonetary aspects of price in chapter 10 (Demand).

A book that presumes to deal with theory might well have been expected to have been more formal and more rigorous. In fact, this has been deliberately avoided. Not only does the state of theory concerning library services hardly seem ready for such treatment but, even if it were, formal, rigorous treatment would probably have hindered communication with many people who would otherwise have been interested. This book adopts an informal, discursive approach. Let us hope that more formal treatment will be developed by those better qualified to do so.

The title of this book, Library Services in Theory and Context, reflects a deliberate emphasis. We are concerned with library services and, therefore, with both the provision and the use of these services. The intent has been to focus on the theoretical aspects and the emphasis is on developing a framework—on how the parts fit together and into the context in which the services are provided. Indeed, a suitable subtitle would have been "Toward a conceptual framework for considering the structure and functioning of library services in relation to their sponsors, their users, and their societal context." Most of the literature about library services has to do with specific details such as indexing, classification, logistics, and social mission. It is clearly important to have such detailed treatments. In contrast, however, the pages that follow represent an attempt to provide a general theoretical framework. Ideally, the more specialized theoretical work will fit within and into this more general treatment. The one should complement the other.

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