The excessive pragmatism of American librarians has thus far prevented them from formulating a defensible philosophy of librarianship because their knowledge problems cannot be resolved by action theory. Analysis of the metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics of librarianship shows that its realities consist of the invisible structure of thought,…

Librarianship and science are antithetical as knowledge systems because the substance of the former is instrumental to the latter, and vice versa. This is revealed by the diametric oppositions of their objects and methods of study, and their objects and means of mastery. (Author)

Postwar librarians have sacrificed the humanistic basis of librarianship and regard the use of science in librarianship as a settled issue. American librarianship is currently dominated by the physical thinking of scientific systems theory, which includes Bertalanffy's general system theory, Wiener's cybernetics, and the Hartley-Shannon theory of…

Comparing librarianship and science in terms of their objectives and methods of study, and their objects and means of mastery, results in the conclusion that they are antithetical as knowledge systems because the substance of librarianship is instrumental to science and vice versa. The resulting differences between them may be summarized as…

Librarianship is the management of knowledge, not the management of nature, i.e., it is controlled by ideas, not by phenomena. The man/document interface provides a key for creating the philosophy of librarianship and a clue to the intellectual nature of the library profession. Because librarianship occurs whenever ideas are reused, librarians…

Abraham Kaplan has produced the clearest philosophical insights in all of library literature into the real nature of library education by providing an outsider's view of librarianship that (1) explains the "mess" librarians are in; (2) identifies humanism as the firm foundation of their profession; and (3) correlates librarianship with…

Difficulties associated with applying the scientific method to disciplines which deal with man and the societies he creates are discussed. Implications for institutional professions such as librarianship are mentioned. (PP)

The establishment of the first documentation center in a library school early in 1955 by Jesse Shera, Dean of the Library School at Western Reserve University, has been widely interpreted as his greatest contribution to librarianship. It may have been his greatest folly, however, because information science has subsequently flooded the library…

Argues that librarianship, which is intimately involved with the communication of knowledge, is thereby deeply involved with the mind-body problem of philosophy, and that this relationship constitutes the major philosophical issue of the library profession in this century. Psychophysical interactionism is discussed in the context of philosophy of…