Metalibrarianship. Ch.2: Historical Milestones in Librarianship

Metalibrarianship. Ch.2: Historical Milestones in Librarianship Nitecki, Joseph Z. 1993. Metalibrarianship : A Model For Intellectual Foundations of Library Information Science. http://twu.edu/library/Nitecki/Metalibrarianship .Volume 1 of The Nitecki Trilogy .Also available as ERIC [ED363 346].

CHAPTER 2:
HISTORICAL MILESTONES IN LIBRARIANSHIP

The library historically has been, in both substance and function, a holistic agency of society. The substance . . . includes the known records of the totality of humanity's experiences and creations . . . the function . . . ideally relates to every individual, group, agency, or institution as potential contributors or as consumers of library resources.1

2.1 Philosophical Interpretation of Library History
History is the art of recording past events, and historical scholarship searches for the laws that govern the sequences of historical happenings.

The library historical literature is predominantly about libraries rather than librarianship. It is so partly beca use the concept of librarianship implies a philosophical underpinning of the field as a unique discipline, a relatively new, and not yet fully developed approach.

Hence, although the history of librarianship provides an important insight into the sociological, political, and technical developments of the discipline, it is of much less help in the study of library philosophy for a number of reasons: (a) The knowledge and understanding of the origin of the discipline are incomplete, based on the acci dents of archaeological discoveries. (b) The available record tells us what and how functions were being done in libraries, but not why. (c) There was no need for philosophy until the discipline matured. The need for any theoretical considerations did not arise until the profession was forced to select priorities in terms of available resources. Initially, priorities were strictly defined for the library, while the planning decisions made by library administrators referred to issues that were pragmatic, n ot theoretical.

Historical review is very important, however, in understanding the reasons for the directions of library development, which is conditioned by the intellectual environment of each period. This book focuses on identifying the basic factors in the growth of the discipline, using arbitrarily selected, historical examples.2

Although in this brief review of the development of librarianship the focus is on libraries, the term 'library' is used generically, c overing not only a physical storehouse of records, but also their organization, content, and users. Recorded messages ('information' in modern nomenclature), have been central to civilization from the very beginning of written communication and were the raison d'etre for libraries. Nowadays, some writers dwell exclusively on information itself, as if its significance had been only recently perceived, overlooking its constant importance in the past. As N.D. Stevens notes, "what is now proclaimed as an 'Inf ormation Age' is, in some sense, a term that can be applied to all stages of human development. The old concept, for example, of an 'Iron Age' can be seen to have its roots in the discovery of information about how iron ore could be transformed into useful objects."3 Stevens concludes his own essay on the history of information with an observation that "a consideration of how, when, and why certain events took place and particular concepts developed can serve to improve our understanding o f how we arrived at the point which we are now at in our consideration of information."4

A review of library literature on the history of libraries suggests three possible approaches to the study of the reason for the emergence of librarianship: descriptive, prescriptive, and analytical.

2.1.1 Descriptive Approach
This is the most popular way of organizing historical data chronologically into events, their causes, and effects. The implied universal laws, not always e asily identified, seem to be the cause-effect relations in historical changes. The approach, referenced in the professional literature as 'the covering law theory' claims "that all explanation of events aims to show that what happened was to be expected, in view of the conditions which preceded it, and that rational expectation is possible only through the assumption of appropriate general laws, which themselves require empirical verification." 5

The approach is based on the ded uctive, probabilistic model proposed by John Stuart Mill in his System of Logic, and refined by Popper, Nagel, Hemper and others, as the bases for scientific explanation in general. The approach is criticized for being too general, confusing the premises of explanation with the inferential procedure of deduction, and for interpreting the law itself not as explanation but as the logical grounds for it. It offers explanation by restating, or 'redescribing' the event in terms of what it is, and not why it happened.6 However, "historians do not seem to support the covering law model, even as an ideal . . . [Since] the vast majority of historians neither do, nor think they ought to, explain by means of the deductive model, that model cannot constitute the correct account of historical explanation."7

Library historians usually follow the description of historical events by focusing on the event itself, or on the forces initiating the change, as the cause for whate ver are the effects of such activities. Accordingly, they follow the chronology of events or analyze motives of their initiators, frequently individual leaders, and the relationships between the two factors. It is often not clear, however, which phenomena are the causes and which the effects. Did, for example, Gabriel Naude change the management style of libraries, or did he merely observe and describe the changes already made, teaching others about the advantages of the change rather than initiating it?

A good example of 'redescribing' principles is L. D. Snyderwine's identification of basic motives for recording facts, events, and ideas. The appearance of documentary records, he argues, marks the beginning of a history, which followed a long period of oral prehistory, by allowing for a transfer of ideas and information beyond time and space confinements. And although the art of record making and keeping constantly improves with technological advances, "the essential causes and purposes of the wh ole operation are the same today as they were early in our history, that is at least to commemorate, to communicate, to pray, to calculate, to measure, and to preserve."8 Snyderwine describes the reasons for record keeping in terms of the motivation for making records themselves.

Any criticism notwithstanding, the descriptive history is all, or almost all, that we have today, and it is used later in this chapter as the intellectual background for the philosophy of librarianship. < p> 2.1.2 Prescriptive Approach
In order to establish the foundations for the philosophy of librarianship, librarians like James Thompson interpreted the history of libraries by implying that certain principles, embodied in the very concept of librarianship, act as a force that actually causes the changes in the development of the discipline. "The essential principles of librarianship," Thompson maintains, "emerge unambiguously and incontrovertibly from our long history."9 And he cites approvingly D. M. Norris's notion that although "history suggests . . . evolutionary or gradual development, . . . such is not the case with cataloging."10 The ancient catalogers, Norris claimed, were as proficient as we are today, although they used different methods. She is saying in effect that they merely interpreted the same cataloging principles differently.

Thompson also quotes E.A. Savage's theory of 'occultation', claiming that many of the principles of librarians hip, such as open shelf, classed catalogs, and subject classification, were implemented a long time ago. They were hidden, or unrecognized, as basic principles of librarianship until they were rediscovered later on.11

This approach is similar to the 'preformism' hypothesis in biology, stating that hereditary characteristics of living organisms are already imbedded in their cells. The organisms develop by unfolding characteristics that already exist in the cell, as an oak seed gro ws into an oak tree. The history of librarianship is, by analogy, a mere unfolding of the principles that were already present in the beginning of librarianship.

Thompson listed seventeen principles that, he claims, define librarianship a priori. All the principles are, in the views of Thompson's critics, retrospective descriptions of (a) truisms (e.g., "Libraries are created by society" -- and so is every other social institution); (b) historically incorrect statements (e.g., "Libraries a re for all" -- not all libraries were or are accessible to everybody); (c) imprecise requirements (e.g., "A librarian needs training and/or apprenticeship" -- what kind?); or (d) principles that may relate to sufficient, but not necessary, reasons for the existence of a discipline (e.g., "Libraries are for the storage and dissemination of knowledge").

The value of Thompson's book is in suggesting a description of the parameters of librarianship: the common characteristics of a kind of library or librarianship, which are shared with other libraries, but differentiated from nonlibrary institutions. In this sense they are similar to S. R. Ranganathan's five laws, (derived from but not imbedded in library practice). Most of them are not 'principles', but what M. H. Harris calls the "simpleminded hodgepodge of practices, functions, purposes, and highly questionable pronouncements about the nature of libraries . . . they in no way constitute . . . a coherent philosophy of librarianship." 12

2.1.3 Analytical Approach
Later in this book I propose a model defining the meaning of librarianship in its broad context of basic relationships between the carriers of recorded messages, their content, and their receivers. The model implies an evolutionary development of library mission, within the framework of these relationships, which can be traced in historical progression of library purposes, goals, and objectives.

The theory supporting the model is based on the epigenetic notion of successive differentiation of ideas from simple and undifferentiated to complex and highly specialized concepts. The differentiation itself is caused by the interrelationships between the internal components of the discipline and the external, environmental influences upon them.

The metaphor here is of heredity, of the process in which genetic characteristic, transmitted through chromosomes, determine the makeup of an individual, similar to others of the same kind, but with variations resulting from genes' interactions with their environment. This approach shares, with the prescriptive method, the 'hereditary' paradigms of librarianship. It differs from the other approach by focusing on additional characteristics which emerged from the changing environment of librarianship. The approach follows J. S. Mill's distinction among natural classes, defining the discipline, and number of other properties within the same class. An analytical approach focuses on relationships between p roperties of primary components of librarianship and their environment.

The primary components are the carriers of records (generic books), their content, (the knowledge they contain), and individuals interacting with them (authors, readers, librarians, etc). The principles of the discipline emerge from the relationships between the primary components, influenced by library processes (e.g., classification or reference), their context (e.g., reading or educational), and the conceptual interpretatio ns of these processes by the participants (their perceptions of what librarianship is, or ought to be).

2.2 Historical Perspectives
In this chapter I review briefly major events in the history of libraries in the context of their cultural environment. Social organizations always reflect their communities; the library is no exception. No library-related ideas are developed in a vacuum. Everything has a cause, nothing happens independently of other events or situations. Every writer in the field 'stands on the shoulders of his predecessors.'13

Physically, human beings are practically unchanged from the Cro-Magnon's days. "Today's new-born child and the baby of a paleolithic cave man cannot be distinguished. Yet they are destined to lead completely different lives."14

The lives were transformed through ages of changes into different cultures, each civilization considered "not so much as devices for efficient and intensive food production . . . but r ather as organizations for the efficient processing of information." 15

The biophysical evolution of the human being was probably completed with the emergence of Homo sapiens some 100,000 years ago. It was also the beginning of the intellectual evolution of the human race. The period is classified as prehistory because of missing archaeological records that would tell us more about the process. There is, however, some evidence suggesting "that 60,000 years ago Neandert hal people had religious ideas and a concern for the after-life."16

The numerous stone tools that are extant from the Old Stone Age provide evidence that prehistoric man started modifying the environment to meet his needs by inventing these tools; he also selected them according to the requirements of the task at hand and developed methods of reproducing them. In addition, he learned how to use available information in planning future activities.

Recorded history known to us started with the oldest-to-date archaeological find, cave paintings, in what is today Northeast Spain. They were created during the Old Stone Age, some 16,500 years before the next archaeological discovery, Sumerian tablets. Not knowing the purpose of the cave paintings -- whether to record important events, to express religious feelings, or simply to entertain -- one can at least conclude that prehistoric man already conceptualized. Tool-making and conceptualizing abilities allowed man to meet his ini tial needs and wishes. The only basic difference between us and the Neanderthal man is the experience gained through millennia of trial and error. The brain sizes of both are the same.

The span of 5,500 years between the earliest evidence of writing and present computer printouts covers various periods of civilization. Cultures were emerging, flourishing, and eventually dispersing almost simultaneously throughout the world, from ancient Egyptian in Northeast Africa, Sumerian in West Asia, Indus i n India, Minoan in Europe, Shang in China, to Olmecs in Central America.

The diagram (Fig. 2-1) Western Cultural Heritage may help the reader to appreciate the process of human cultural growth. In the form of a twelve-hour clock, it represents the period of approximately the last four millennia of human existence. To illustrate the whole history of the human race we would need at least 249 additional clocks, taking us back one million years, to the appearance of the first hum an beings.17

The history relevant to this study covers the period of approximately 5,500 years from the innovation of pictographic writing (ca. 3500 BC) to the computer revolution of the late twentieth century. Almost half of that time, until the construction of the Assurbanipal Library (ca.650 BC), can be considered a pre-library history. In this period writing went through a number of improvements, from pictographic, through heliographic, to the first real alphabet (ca. 1800-16 00 BC).

These changes were accompanied by improved writing material: from stone, through clay, to papyrus. The result was the appearance of the first book known to us, the Book of Death (ca. 1500 BC), followed by legal codes and literary creations.

The known history of libraries is 2,650 years old. The largest segment of that history, from the Assurbanipal Library to the invention of print (AD 1400), was characterized by a slow maturation of the discipline, followed by an accelerated de velopment of librarianship, accompanied by the explosion of publication activities, culminating in the 'information age.'

What follows are brief, oversimplified descriptions of cultural characteristics of each historical period, followed by a broad discussion of their impact on the evolution of librarianship.

2.3 The Beginnings: ca. 500,000 (?)--3000 BC.
The beginning of culture is traced back to the Old Stone Age, at least half a million years ago, the period of Homo sapiens , the descendant of the genus Homo and the primate family Hominidae. All that we know about this species is that they lived on many continents, with their skeletons found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The first signs of a primitive society, the cave Neanderthal, were traced to their retreat in the glaciers between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago. Homo sapiens hunted, used fire, and believed in an afterlife. Cro-Magnons and other races who followed them demonstrated increased skill in gradually gaining control of their environment. Improved tools testify to their inventiveness, and the discovery of skeletons in many different locations points to the mobility of the races. The appearance of civilized societies in Mesopotamia and Egypt in approximately 3000 BC marks the end of this period.

2.4 River Valley Civilizations: 3000 BC-- 1750 BC
The small neolithic settlements in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and Egypt were transformed into larger regions in approximately 3000 BC and flou rished until the first general migrations of 1750 BC in Egypt, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Greece.

2.4.1 Historical Overview
The first agricultural societies appeared about 8,000 years ago in the Middle East, marking the beginning of a food-producing economy, trade, migration and warfare. Permanent larger settlements were slowly built in river valleys, the best known in the deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia and on the Nile in Egypt. These centers, known collectively as the River Valley civilization, mastered the knowledge of regulating the river flow by building canals and dikes for irrigation and transportation. The resulting surplus of crops allowed for extensive trade, the appearance of an influential merchant class, the emergence of cities, and the beginning of pharaonic rule, the construction of pyramids, and urban administration by aristocracy and priests. The invention of writing, the potter's wheel, the plow, and two-wheeled vehicles followed, accompanied by the const ruction of sailboats, the development of mining, and the process of coppercasting.

2.4.2 Library--related Implications
Richardson's speculations about the beginnings of libraries may stretch our imagination beyond reasonable doubts (e.g., precosmic libraries of the gods),18 but he correctly traced the conceptual beginnings of libraries to the mnemonic devices used as the first records of what D. Diringer calls 'embryo-writing': "Man has used all sorts of methods and device s for transmission of thoughts: images, symbols or arbitrary signs . . . carved, engraved, drawn or painted . . . but the first attempts . . . were undifferentiated . . . they could belong to the history of art . . . magic . . . or to the history of writing."19 Some of these devices must have been saved and shared with others for future use, eventually arranged according to their religious, mythical, artistic-entertainment, or archival purposes. All of these functions are also performed in a contemporary library.

2.5 Oriental Civilization: 1750 BC -- 323 BC
The first major migration that followed the invasions of River Valley societies in 1750 BC marks the beginning of the oriental civilization. [Fig.2-1) The region became dominated by the Indo-Europeans from the Caspian Sea, who gradually conquered most of Europe, followed by Semites from the south and native Egyptians. The period ends with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

2.5.1 Hist orical Overview
The new civilization was characterized by development of bronze and iron, the use of horses and camels, and the construction of permanent roads and seagoing ships. In this period the alphabet was developed, in ca. 1400 BC., initiating record keeping for commercial and administrative purposes.

A new social structure evolved which included royalty, priests, soldiers, administrators, and semi-free or slave artisans and peasants. Administrative technique was highly developed and c alled for dividing the country into provinces, with government responsible for collecting taxes and maintaining a well-equipped army.

The culture of the period included unique art and sculpture, highly advanced astronomy, and religious movements such as monotheism in Egypt, Sumerian mythology, Zoroastrianism in Persia, and Hebrew religion in Palestine. One of the most significant individuals of this period was Alexander of Macedonia, conqueror of the Orient, who brought Greek culture to the new e mpire.

At the time of the emergence of Western culture, independent civilizations developed in other parts of the world, generated by neolithic influences in India, China, and Japan, and by isolation from Eurasian civilization in the American civilizations of the Mayans, the Incas and the Aztecs.

2.5.2 Library-related Implications
Librarianship evolved gradually in response to the cultural needs of its society. Some of today's library activities are easily traced to antiquity. Preceded by oral history, pictographic writing started to document the history of various civilizations. This writing began as a visual method of recording the sound of the language. The concept spread with the migrating populations from one civilization to another, gradually adapting the technique of writing to the material available in each region. For a long time writing was reserved for the privileged elite; the scribe's proficiency in copying texts was acquired in scribal schools. The profession of book writers began.

At first, the purpose of writing was to record the rules of the administration, to keep account of various activities, to praise the ruler, or to guide the soul in the afterlife journeys. The Book of Death, the earliest known record of human intellectual curiosity, expressed beliefs in the immortality of the soul and in the bearing of conduct during life on earth on human afterlife.

Formal inscriptions on monuments, informal funeral texts, and even more informal text s written on pottery served to record historical events, often with propagandist praise of the king (e.g., 'The Story of Sinube'); to advise (e.g., 'The Book of Proverbs'); or to entertain (e.g., 'The Shipwrecked Sailor'). Even in this early period, some writings were used as literary means for escaping reality (e.g., 'A Dialogue of a Pessimist with his Soul'). Love poems, hymns, and prayers were poetic in nature. Business and legal records, mathematical treatises and astronomical works reflected a mixt ure of speculations and observations, while private letters revealed the daily concerns of people -- concerns which were not much different from our own.20 World literature was born. The stage had been set for the collection, preservation, service, and management of written records.

The first known library of antiquity was built by the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (668-626 BC) some three thousand years after the invention of writing. The content of the library indicates the existen ce of an already widespread Assyro-Babylonian literature. The library had its own staff, the books were arranged by subject, and the catalog provided access to their location. "There were deeds, documents, and letters; religious texts; historical accounts; and works in the most diverse fields of knowledge . . . to serve state as well as church, to promote the lasting fame of its founder as well as scientific knowledge."21

According to Thompson, in the library at Edfu in Egypt, kn own as the "House of Papyrus," the arrangement of the collection suggested the beginning use of crude cataloging, classification, and descriptive bibliography. In Babylonia and Assyria, tables were numbered according to their location in the library, with series named from the first tablet. "In the Kalakh collection, under the direction of a librarian called Nabu-zuqub-gina . . . (716--684 BC) . . . the catalogue entries included the title of the work, the number of lines, the contents, the incipit or op ening words . . . and each of its important parts or subdivisions."22

The history of archaeological artifacts teaches us a simple lesson: "that there is no single path to civilization, no pattern of unilineal evolution which all different early complex societies independently follow . . . no single centre of diffusion from which all major advances spread."23 Furthermore, civilization, like science "develops in close correspondence with the stages of man's soci al progress and becomes progressively more self-conscious as man's whole way of life becomes more purposive."24 Both these interpretations support the concepts of comparative librarianship based on the unquestionably unique social roots of each library.

2.6 Classical Civilization: ca. 900 BC--AD 900
"Classical civilization may be defined as the pattern of social life which grew up in the Greek city-state, spread through the Mediterranean basin, reaching its maximum extent in the time of the Roman Empire, and then broke up gradually through a period of barbarian invasions."25

This long historical period began with the emergence of Greek city states, (ca.900 BC) followed by the Roman civilization (beginning with Punic wars in 264 BC, ending with the fall of Rome in AD 410). The period is further extended by the inclusion of Byzantine civilization (from the fall of Rome to the fall of Constantinople in AD 1453) and the first invasion of central Euro pe by Hungarians in AD 900 AD.

2.6.1 The Greek City-States: 900 BC -- 336 BC
Classical civilization emerged from ancient Minoan and Mycenaean civilization, and from the Greek 'Dark Age.' Its past was described in Homeric epic poetry of the eight century BC.

2.6.1.1 Historical Overview
The period was characterized by rapid population growth, peaceful colonization of other countries without interfering with the local population, increased export of woolen cloth, and the excha nge of needed raw materials for pottery and metal products. The agricultural sector specialized in cultivating olives and vines, which were traded for grain from other Mediterranean countries.

The aristocracy dominated society, which included slave-artisans, foreign-born merchants, tenant farmers working for the aristocracy, and professional soldiers defending their interests.

A new form of government, oligarchy, transferred the power from nobility to wealthy merchants. Greek religion was c haracterized by mystic celebration of Dionysos, the god of wine; communication with gods through Delphic and other oracles; and the dedication of gymnastic competitions at Olympia. Introduction of vowel signs simplified alphabetic writing, freed readers from memorization techniques, and stimulated prose and poetry. Monumental Greek architecture, known for its proportions, the details of its construction and its distinctively decorative Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian styles, is well appreciated today. Sculptur es of athletes and decorative pottery completed the Greek artistic tradition.

Greek philosophy and science, free from the orthodoxy of Oriental culture and local mythical/religious explanations of reality that were often contradictory, developed rational bases for intellectual inquiry. Prose writing, explanations of the physical universe, and philosophical speculations were all based on rational methodology. Thales of Miletus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were the philosophers of this era.

The Hellenistic period (334 BC--146 BC) began with Alexander the Great succession as the king of Macedonia in 334 BC. In the thirteen years of his reign he radically changed the political and cultural makeup of world civilization. His military conquests were accompanied by Greek migration into new lands. The resulting mixtures of cultures led to new military technologies, more advanced city planning, various mechanical inventions, social innovations in banking, improved education and liter acy, increases in book publishing, and the spread of Greek as a common language. Production and distribution of goods were state controlled, necessitating the introduction of administrative bureaucracy. Foreign trade extended to China and Europe. and the period was marked by economic interdependence and specialization.

Socially, a clear distinction was made between the ruling Greeks and the native population, and between rich and poor, with the oligarchic form of government transplanted to the co nquered lands. Philosophy substituted for ethical teaching among wealthy citizens, while lower classes shared religious worship of their rulers. This practice resembled modern patriotism, combined with a mystic belief in the gods' influences on people's lives.

The art of the previous period continued to flourish and was adopted in everyday life. Literature was extremely popular, although little of it survived. Science was separated from philosophy by the development of speculative, heliocentric, an d geocentric theories in astronomy that seemed more realistic at that time. Geometry was codified, and mathematics was applied to the physical sciences and to engineering. Systematic studies of anatomy expanded the science of physiology; data collected in biology contributed to pharmacy and were cataloged in Theophrastus' book Plants, which became the standard reference, used for centuries.

In literature, earlier Greek classics were edited by Alexandrian scholars. In philosophy, Plato's Aca demy centered on scepticism, Aristotle's Lyceum on eclecticism, and the new schools of the Cynics, the Epicureans, and the Stoics concentrated on ethical issues, turning philosophy into a way of life.

2.6.1.2 Library-related Implications
The Hellenistic period was characterized by oral communication, with recitation preferred over the silent readings of manuscripts. The Socratic seminar method might have significantly contributed to the art of thinking and argumentation, focusing more on issues of relations than on facts. Greek became one of the most flexible languages, and sufficiently precise; but the period was also marked by the phenomenon of Sophism, with its often endless, unfocused discussions. Books were primarily used as aids to memory.

H. C. Wright "regards the nomadic bard traditions, including the Homeric tradition, as the oral surrogates of librarianship."26 He illustrates this by describing a Greek 'mnemon': the memory man, whose function it was to memorize business transactions, thus performing an archival service.

The shift to written communication, which took place between 320 BC and 100 BC, increased the number of manuscripts and the revival of libraries. "Aristotle, unlike Socrates and Plato, had a large library, and was interested in factual information."27

The tradition of the library of antiquity continued in the classical period of Greek literature. The Library of Alexandria resembled in many ways the A ssurbanipal library's organization. As pointed out by A. Hessel, both were founded by reigning kings, both provided universal coverage of available literature arranged in a similar fashion. There were, however, also major differences in the format of material collected: clay tablets in the Assurbanipal library and papyrus rolls in the Alexandrian library. The two libraries were separated by four centuries of relative inactivity under the reign of Medo-Persian kings.28

The librari ans at the Alexandria library were scholars and teachers of royalty, editors of Greek literature who contributed to the sciences of the day, such as mathematical geography and lexicography. The library at Pergamum, as its name may suggest saw the introduction of a new book format, the pergamene roll.29

2.6.2 Roman civilization: 753 BC--AD 410
Long after the founding of Rome in 753 BC, and following centuries of wars with its neighbors, Roman civilization reached its zenith after the Punic wars in the third century BC. The period ends with the fall of Rome in AD 410.

2.6.2.1 Historical Overview
From the early stage, Roman political power was in the hands of senatorial aristocracy, which controlled life in Rome and in the conquered provinces. The major contributions were made in jurisprudence, which became based on legal precedents. Greek culture dominated Roman life, influencing the arts, literature, and philosophy. The art of oratory as a staple subject of int ellectual discourse survived into the Middle Ages and beyond.

With the gradual weakening of Roman class structure in the third century and political disorders in the following century, the Christian Church gained strength and significance. Meanwhile, the division of the Roman Empire between the two sons of Theodosius precipitated the final decline of the West Roman Empire, which formally ended with the capture of Rome by Visigoths in AD 410 AD.

2.6.2.2 Library- related Implications
Romans continued the Hellenistic tradition in aesthetics, scholarship, and literature, all initially written in Greek, "very much as eighteenth-century Europeans used French in order to deal with ideas and feelings for which they felt their native languages too crude."30

The period represented an adaptation and further incorporation of Greek culture into Roman, the assimilation of the enemy's culture being a familiar phenomenon throughout history. The Roman aristocracy's app reciation of books led to the introduction of the first public library in Rome, the Atrium Libertatis. According to Burke, the Romans were very practical, realistic, and inventive, but they were also sentimental humanitarians; this paradox explains the inconsistencies of their behavior. "The later Romans, like ourselves, had come to hold a low opinion of the personality that suffered, and a high one of the suffering itself."31 Most of the book collections were built from war booty; private libraries were owned by the wealthy people, and the libraries themselves were often pretentious and status-driven. Among the best known private libraries were the collections of Cicero, Atticus and Varro, followed later by the libraries of Augustus, Tiberius, and Vespasian. They contained mostly Greek scholarly and literary books. In the fourth century AD Romans lost interest in libraries all together.

The Roman conception of a library was a large building, well ornamented, attached to the templ e, with books cataloged and stored in wooden chests. Some of the books circulated, and the collections were administered by priests. The religious connection of Roman libraries was later extended to the libraries in the monasteries of the Middle Ages.

The thousand years separating the classical period from the Renaissance encompassed the fall of both Rome and Constantinople, the barbarian invasions of Europe in the fifth century and another invasion by Turks in the fifteenth century. Gradually, R oman civilization declined; the philosophies of stoicism and epicureanism yielded to Christianity and its focus on personal consciousness.

2.6.3 Byzantine Civilization (410 BC -- AD 1453)
Under the name of Byzantine, the East Roman Empire survived the fall of its eastern branch until its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

2.6.3.1 Historical Overview
Byzantine culture was strongly influenced by Greek civilization, and although it was not innovative, it significantly influe nced eastern European societies by means of their conversion to Greek Orthodox Christianity. Later it was also instrumental in the rediscovery of Greek classics in Western Europe, through the works of Byzantine and Arab scholars.

2.6.3.2 Library- related Implications

The library and academy built by Constantine acquired a large number of Christian texts, most of them lost in the fire of AD 476. The remaining ancient manuscripts were compiled and analyzed with biographical notes for the author s by Photius (d. 897/8). His work was followed by encyclopedists and restorers of old manuscripts in ecclesiastical and monastery libraries. The monastic rules for librarians, libraries, and scriptoria were set by abbot Theodore of Studium (d. 826). In the fifteenth century, many of the holdings of Byzantine libraries were brought to Europe to serve as core collections for Renaissance philological and historical research.32

2.7 Transitional period: AD 410 -- AD 900
A five-hundred-year-long transition period in European culture began with the fall of Rome and ended with the collapse of the Carolingian empire after the death of Charlemagne.

2.7.1 Historical Overview
This period is characterized by a significant movement among the various peoples, fast-changing political rules, and the waning of Roman civilization during Europe's Dark Ages. The quality of life deteriorated, with increasing reliance on local self-sufficiency to defend against barbaric inv asions. It was the period of church dominance in public life and of monasticism, with a temporary economic revival during Carolingnian monarchy.

2.7.2. Library-related Implications
Charlemagne's educational reform included establishment of a palace school responsible for teaching, collecting, and copying manuscripts. A new, smaller, and more legible form of lettering was introduced and is known today as 'Carolingian minuscule.'

2.8 Middle Ages: 900--1500
The medieval revival of civilization started with the shift in Germany from Carolingian rule (AD 914) to that of Otto the Great (926--973); it ended with the century of discoveries in 1500. European culture had its origin in classical Greek and Roman Judeo-Christian civilizations, the influence of which was continuous and uninterrupted. Considering the Middle Ages as the beginning of European culture is arbitrary, based on political and economic rather than cultural considerations. The more pronounced characteristics which distinguished European culture began with the spread of Christianity in the fourth century and the revival of classical culture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

2.8.1 Historical Overview
Pre-medieval Western Europe was characterized by manorial agriculture, civil and church feudalism, the growth of military aristocracy, wars, and the cultural penetration of the Eastern and Northern parts of Europe. The cultural revival in classical education, stone architecture, and polyphonic music centered around the church, whose influence began in the eleventh century and lasted until the end of thirteenth century. "A new and brilliant civilization arose in western Europe, emerging from the crudity, ignorance, and poverty of earlier centuries."33 This era of Catholic Church domination saw the growth of market towns, expanded trades of raw materials in exchange for foreign luxury items, and metallurgic manufacturing. Gradually the feudal system changed to more liberal forms of local government. Church pageantry, splendidly displayed in its services, architecture, and music, influenced secular sculpture and painting. Popular at the time was classic literature written in Latin and epic poetry and romantic lyrics in vernacular languages. Platonic mysticism, realism, nominalism, and Aristotelian rationalism were the focus of intellectual debates. They separated theological speculations from philosophical analysis and recognized science as an independent discipline.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries competition among merchant guilds, the introduction of interest on loans, the Church's slow adjustment to changes, unrest among the peasants, and the influx of new ideas from abroad led to the rise of numerous religious heresies which both defended and attacked the secularization of life.

2.8.2 Library-related Implications
The beginning of the Middle Ages (AD 400-600) is characterized by a decline of pagan classical culture and the emergence of Christian ity, with the Bible, written in Latin, as the principal book.

"Canon law became more important than civil, monastic communities replaced the towns, theological writings overshadowed belles-lettres, and monastery and cathedral schools flourished while the old educational system declined . . . the pamphlet was preferred to the volume, and classic texts were reduced to meager anthologies, epitomes, and synopses."34

The development of libraries in the Middle Ages began with the closing of Roman public libraries, the decline of scholarship, and assignment of responsibilities for the preservation of the records of culture to clergy and monasteries. The format of the book changed from papyrus to parchment and codex, influencing library architecture and the internal organization of material. Books were arranged by subject, size, or acquisition, and the main subjects used at the time were theology, secular works, and textbooks.

Among the first important library intellectua l leaders of this period was Saint Benedict, the founder of the Monte Cassino monastery, and the scholar Callimachus, the author of Pinakes the first written library rules and the library catalog of manuscripts. Pinakes subdivided manuscripts by format and subject into 120 classes, arranged alphabetically by author, title, and first line with brief annotations. For a long time Pinake "enjoyed a canonical reputation and formed the basis of all later bibliographies of antiquity."35

Benedictine rule stressed the concept of community, philanthropy, and services, emphasizing the importance of reading as contemplative rather than intellectual activity.

Cassiodorus was the founder of the monastery at Vivarium, a kind of ecclesiastical academy dedicated to the preservation of classics. His administrative contributions included a prescription for the proper arrangement of work in scriptoria and scholarship which stressed precision in the copying of documents for other scholars. This precision was difficult to achieve because the manuscripts were reproduced by monks who frequently were unable to read what they were writing. Later, scriptoria shifted from ecclesiastic to commercial organizations that focused on copying old books and manufacturing new ones, effectively separating themselves from libraries and their functions as centers of learning.

In the second period of the Middle Ages (AD 600--1100) parchment had already replaced papyrus and the monas teries were fully engaged in transcription of ancient literature onto the new medium. Due to clerical errors, this increased the risk of changing the original text in the process. The stiff cover of the parchment radically changed the format of the document, affecting the library method of storage and shelving. The permanence of parchment and the ease of handling in the new format significantly contributed to an increase in the circulation of manuscripts, a clear advantage over the original papyrus.

The changing format of recorded knowledge symbolized the decline of pagan culture and, with it, its libraries. The Roman Empire collapsed and the Church filled the gap, establishing itself as the main cultural force. The activities of Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries contributed to the spread of manuscripts and of Catholic religion throughout Europe. It was also the period of the earliest recorded court decisions concerning 'copyrights.' The ownership of literary text was given to the owners of pap er and parchment, not to the book's author or scribe, although the painter retained his rights to illustrations in the manuscript. This practice was similar to the modern publisher's rights to text, quotes, etc.36

A short break in the Dark Ages emerged during the Carolingian Renaissance of the twelfth century (AD 751-987). It was characterized by the revival of learning, classical knowledge, and culture. The education system consisted of free village, monastery and cathedral sch ools, some with small libraries averaging 300 manuscripts. The programs were divided into the trivium and the quadrivium. It was the age of library discoveries: classical manuscripts were found, copied, and disseminated. Scribes, usually at the rank of bishop or abbot, performed important social functions in promoting lay culture and vernacular language.

In the period between 1100 and 1400, medieval culture reached its highest point, followed by a decline of Church supremacy and the emergence of th e middle class. Awakened curiosity opened the way to the next period of geographical discoveries and the Renaissance. A significant increase in intellectual activities was reflected in a corresponding rise in the number of published pamphlets. The demand for printed material speeded up the invention of print. This was a period of emerging universities and growth in the number of royal, private, and university libraries.

Overall, the medieval period is characterized by emphases on the rational p rocesses and on logic over observations. Debates concentrated on differences between methods and material, process and product, logic and learning, "hence it could conceive the scholar as ignorant but never as stupid."37 The educational focus at universities changed from oral defense of theses to written dissertations, a change which increased the demand for textbooks and bookstores.38

New commercial renting libraries were licensed by university authorities to the stationarii, for renting and copying manuscripts for sale. The license imposed the responsibility for the correctness of the text on the stationarii, giving them at the same time a monopoly for a rental system. This function was distinguished from the librarius, who was then a forerunner of the contemporary secondhand dealer. The university library collection was for internal, reference use only. Library practice was codified by Richard de Bury in 1345 in his Philobiblion.

2.9 Modern Wor ld: 1500-
The modern world began with the discoveries of the American continent in the 1500s and ends with our own time.

2.9.1 Historical Overview
The sudden import of gold to Europe, followed by severe inflation, benefited trading merchants and weakened feudal nobility. Centers of commerce moved from Italian to Dutch and other enterpreneuners, and new joint stock companies were formed to subsidize international trade. Scientific discoveries directly influenced technologies, improvin g navigation, military equipment, and mining industries.

The unity of European Christendom was shaken by Luther's call for church reforms, followed by the establishment of the Protestant movement and consequent religious revolutions and wars. The controversy was manifested in the ethical extremes of piety and bigotry, toleration and intolerance, leading in the eighteenth century to intellectual revolt. Slowly the impact of Copernican theory, the power of new mathematical analysis, new insight into the physics of the universe, and medical explorations of the human body changed the perception of reality. The philosophical concept of natural law replaced religious influence on social and political life and further contributed to the definition of modern culture.

In the century preceding the French and American revolutions, Europe was still governed by monarchy and nobility, but with increased political, economic, and cultural diversity among the individual countries. Cosmopolitanism, religious indifference, faith in scientific reason, and belief in progress were reinforced by radicalism in vernacular literature, which was critical of the status quo. A philosophy of human reason reinforced the credo of Enlightenment, that all people are by nature good and are entitled to life, liberty, property, and equality. The new political thinking foreshadowed the American and French revolutions. The call for liberty, equality and fraternity was echoed in nineteenth century slogans for liberalism, socialism, and nationalism.39

The Industrial Revolution started late in the eighteenth century and extended into the next century. It was initiated by introduction of power-driven machinery, a merge of scientific theory with economic policy, rapid population growth, increased agricultural and industrial productivity, and development of transportation and communication. In art, symbolism and abstraction replaced Renaissance perspective by introducing multiple viewpoints of distorted shapes a nd colors. Literature and music become nationalistic. However, the period also produced universal art in all its forms, defying any classification and appealing to people all over the world.

Today, intellectual revolution continues to be reinforced by scientific accomplishments, illustrated by man's walk on the moon, and by limitations, such as the inability to end poverty in the Third World. The range of modern culture stretches from universal theory of relativity to psychoanalytic irrationality o f the human mind, philosophical belief in rational explanation of reality, and existential revolt against rationalism. Political and religious radicalism formulated theories of positivism, dialectical materialism, and humanism, each challenging established beliefs of the past.

Twentieth-century wars and economic depressions ended European autonomy and domination of the world. Science and technology changed lifestyles, while computers expanded human power to manipulate ideas and exercise governme ntal control of economic activities. Philosophy refocused its attention on itself, defining its scope, explaining its methodology, and justifying its search for the meaning of reality. And, finally, nuclear energy opened new, not yet fully understood potential for the next period in human culture.

2.9.2 Library-related Implications
This period may be considered in five segments to view library-related implications.

2.9.2.1 The Renaissance: 1400--1600
With the discover y of the American continent and the Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans, and with the advent of Copernican theory and the Reformation, the concept of human primacy was shaken. Knowledge of the environment expanded, and the twenty million volumes published in this period forever replaced handwritten books. Classical literature was revived, along with the focus on the individual.

Universities began to grant graduate (e.g.,B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.) degrees, and carefully selected books were accepted as final authority. To avoid the influence of unauthorized, 'corrupted' texts, oral teaching and dictation were introduced. There were three types of books in the university: (1) stationary books for rent, (2) college-owned books for teaching, and (3) books in commercialized libraries, rented as texts, either dictated by teachers (edicta), or rendered as student's notes (reportata).

Libraries were engaged in intensive collection of materials and objects from antiquity, with major cent ers of activity located in Venice and Florence. Philological and historical research stimulated an emergence of new libraries, among them one in the Vatican.

A major difference between medieval and Renaissance libraries was in the area of public access: Renaissance populace had access to libraries which only medieval clergy could use before. However, in both the medieval and the renaissance periods, the collections offered relatively little encouragement for the emerging culture. The classificatio n and cataloging rules and procedures remained the same, and printed books were excluded from library collections until the end of the Renaissance. With Gutenberg's invention of printing, the "close connection between the makers and the collectors of books was dissolved forever."40

The post-Gutenberg period was characterized by a print explosion. In the first fifteen years of printing, eight million books were published. A new book trade developed, and with it, plagiarism. To a ccommodate an enlarged reading public, municipal libraries were organized. The Protestant revolt brought humanism and renewed interest in Classical literature, increased preservation of old manuscripts, and the introduction of vernacular literature. This was also the beginning of scientific, legal, and historical bibliographic studies of ancient philology, specialized medicine, and legal systems. These were compiled by the scholars themselves and constituted the first bibliographies in their fields.

2.9.2.2 The Seventeenth Century.
The seventeenth century manifested a modern scientific spirit characterized by examination of historical texts and focus on facts and experimentation. Scholars continued to read extensively in the narrow subjects of interest to them "but did not seem conscious of the powerful potential held by the book itself as the expression of universal thought."41 At the same time, interest in pure bibliography, which was initiated in the previous century, spread through Europe. It laid the groundwork for a new science of bibliography which researched printed texts, produced specialized bibliographies, and shifted attention from the reader to the book itself.42

Fast-developing printing technology, an increased number of books, and an expanded reading public led to the gradual evolution of librarianship as it moved away from its preoccupation with the physical aspects of a library and its records, toward the emergence of librarians a s mediators and brokers of information.

Naude (1627) proposed a model for a universal library based on a collection that would represent major contributions to knowledge, both in original languages and in translations. In his model, the library would cover all disciplines, interconnected by available reference works. For him, the best classification was one that was "easiest and most natural," and his main principle was the notion that "a collection should not only promote the fame of its owner b ut should at the same time satisfy the needs of the public."43, 44

2.9.2.3 The Eighteenth Century
In the eighteenth century, reading became very popular. This popularity contributed to increased knowledge of different cultures, and, with it, a development of a nonconformist attitude, freedom of choice, hostility to authority, and a new philosophy. This period also marked the beginning of the reconstruction of history by publications about discoveries not only of new continents but also of new ideas and cultures.

Subscription and circulating libraries, together with reading societies, were organized throughout Europe and America. Dictionaries and encyclopedias were popular, and a number of special bibliographies, both universal and national, were published. Subject bibliographies, according to Malcles, reached their apogee, with fast-developing commercial and technical bibliographies. However, the role of the bibliography had not yet been clearl y defined.45

2.9.2.4 The Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century began in Europe with the impact of sudden changes created by a decline of royalty and nobility, nationalization of religious orders, and a transfer of book ownership in the last decade of the eighteenth century. Concern about the destruction of books led to indexing and to the science of books.

The professional bibliography was initially created by booksellers. The new environment created by geog raphical discoveries, public education, universities, and learned societies increased interest in intellectual publications. The stabilized book trade, an increased number of periodicals, the establishment of archives, and improved access to libraries required better management of library resources.

The first technical works on bibliography as a profession were published, making a distinction between general and scientific bibliography and giving rise to the science of bibliography. Bibliography shifted from a preoccupation with authors to an interest in their works. It was defined as an awareness of the products of the mind, recording the intellectual activities of the day.46

By the end of nineteenth century a distinction was being made between 'librarianship,' focusing on acquisition, organization, and interpretation of collections, and 'documentation,' studying the issues related to nonmonographic publications and utilization of technical facilities in literature re search. This was also a period during which different types of libraries, such as public, special, and school libraries, quickly developed.

2.9.2.5 The Twentieth Century
In libraries, the beginning of the twentieth century was characterized by careful selection of relevant material from the mass of publications, introduction of the division of work in library administration, and elimination of dated ideas by weeding. Publications of retrospective bibliographies of fundamental works were design ed for the use of researchers and therefore were created with specialized scope. Each discipline developed its own bibliography, and government became more involved in organizing its information systems.

The 1950s marked the start of rapid developments in computer technology and its application to library operations. Library automation at first was applied to basic library services such as text transcription, indexing, abstracting, document selection, information retrieval, processing ordering, ca taloging and serials management.47

It was a significant conceptual shift from the notion of adapting some library operations to what a machine could do (e.g., typing cataloging cards), to utilizing the machine's potential to provide service (e.g., keypunched instructions, and later more sophisticated information retrieval). The change was made possible in part by technical innovations that allowed for a switch from exclusively arithmetic calculations performed by machine to othe r mathematical functions. Furthermore, the instructions to the computer could be defined in symbolic, nonnumerical codes, automatically transcribed by compiler code into binary, machine readable codes. This facilitated development of languages to design programs, such as FORTRAN (Formula Translation for Mathematicians), COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), and other specialized programs.48

In 1951 the introduction of the first electronic computer, UNIVAC, was followed by the second-generation transistorized computers of the early 1960s, the third-generation, integrated circuit computers in the late 1960s, and the fourth-generation large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) computer in 1980. The importance of the invention of integrated circuitry was compared to the invention of printing. In both cases, the machine was designed and the circuits were built only once, to be reproduced mechanically a number of times later.

Fast expanding computer technology was followed by a n upsurge in the amount of attention paid to the users of computers, implementation of the notion of 'user friendly' computers, and development of interest in machine-human interface software. The phenomenal increase in the speed of computer operations and in the size of computer memory allowed for expanding applications of computer technology to the organization, management, and retrieval of information, stimulating new research into the theory of the discipline of library information science.

H owever, as T. Roszak reminds us, the computer is not a panacea. Its basic limitations are defined by human imperfections: "This inability of the mind to capture its own nature is precisely what makes it impossible to invent a machine that will be the mind's equal, let alone its successor. The computer can only be one more idea in the imagination of its creator."49

While computer technology changed the production of published information, shifts also occurred in scholarly commun ications. Twentieth-century research in library and information science followed, although slowly, the changing paradigms of scholarship. The focus changed from sociological emphasis on library patrons considered as a group and system-centered management, to psychological study of the cognitive processes in information transfer.50

The twentieth century is also witnessing an emergence of format diversity (e.g., optical, imaging, audio-visuals) and new communication media (such as extensive use of telephone data networks, fiber optics, fax, and e-mail). These have resulted in such innovations as the option of availability of on-site and remote access to resources, not to mention the new function of library instruction. All these changes significantly affect the definition of library information science.

With the increased complexity of information systems, the managerial and interpretive roles of the librarian will be further expanded by focusing on the importance of critical review and synthesis of expanding literature, in all formats from print to electronic. There is a need, not yet fulfilled, to "integrate the facts and findings of many articles, to clarify issues and to suggest where additional research is needed."51 To meet this new challenge, the whole educational curriculum for library and information science will have to be revised, with more emphasis placed not only on subject specialization but also on philosophical sophistication.

At each stage of library development, the discipline had a number of optional directions to follow. The directions chosen always reflected the cultural environment at the time, the state of technology and the intellectual curiosity of the period. The historical judgment of the decisions made by each successive generation of librarians should always be made in terms of the degree of success or failure in meeting the society's needs and expectations.

2.10 Conclusion
Shera succinctly summa rized the impact of historical changes on the "library as an agency of communication . . . [revealing] a variety of forces and pressures that have shaped and reshaped its social role."52

Throughout history, Shera noted, the library preserved records essential to church and state, serving as a 'handmaiden for power and authority' of monarchic, church, and civil agencies. It gained a social status by developing archival resources for scholars and by providing assistance to education, nobility, and special interests. Following political and industrial revolutions, the library was required to serve 'the common man': "It brought together, perhaps for the first time in the long history, not a tight homogeneous little worlds of philosophers, divines, or scientists, but men from many walks of life . . . who might find in its resources a common bond of understanding."53

Metalibrarianship
Table of Contents
Tables and Diagrams
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Historical Milesones in Librarianship
Chapter 3: Changing Paradigms of Library Information Science (LIS)

NOTES 1. Reith, D. (1984). The Library as a Social Agency. In A. R. and McChesney, K. Roger, The Library in Society. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Un limited, p.5.

2. For overviews of library history summarized in this chapter see Hessel, A. (1955), History of Libraries, New Brunswick, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press (translated, with supplementary material by Reuben Peiss; Reuben Peiss Memorial edition), J. M. Smith, Chronology of Librarianship, 1968; K. McChesney's essay on "History of libraries, librarianship, and library education." In Rogers and McChesney, The Library in Society, Littleton, Colo., Libraries Unli mited,1984, pp. 33-60, and J. Gates's Introduction to Librarianship, New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 3rd. ed., 1990.

3. Stevens, N. D. (1986), "The History of Information." In Simonton, Wesley (ed.), Advances in Librarianship, vol. 14, Orlando: Academic Press, p. 2.

4. Ibid., p. 44

5. Dray, W. H., "Philosophy of History," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Paul Edwards, ed., New York, Macmillan, 1967, v. 6., p. 248.

6. Kim, Jaegwon, "Explanation in Science," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, op. cit., vol. 3, pp. 159-163.

7. Weingartner, Rudolph, H., "Historical Explanation,"The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, op. cit., vol. 4, p. 10.

8. Snyderwine, L. T. (Summer 1981). "The Philosophy of Recording Knowledge," Journal of Educational Media Science, 18(4),p. 34.

9. Thompson, J. (1977), History of the Principles of Librarianship, London: Clive Bingley, p. 11.

10. Ibid., p. 10.

11. Ibid.