Our physical existence is defined by a successful perception of, and adjustment to, a constantly changing environment. Our mental growth is determined by the extent of communicating our ideas of perceptions with others. Both physical and mental growth increase with our ability to learn from experiences of others. Communication from the past and into the future is only possible through symbols, standing for nonphysical ideas.

The meanings of ideas are expressed predominantly in recorded formats. The preservation, organization, and dissemination of recorded ideas are essential to our intellectual survival and are the subject matter of librarianship . Their specific content, format, and context are the focus of individual disciplines such as the sciences, the arts, or technology. But the understanding of the ultimate nature of communicating recorded ideas is, I maintain, a domain of the philosophy of librarianship.

1.2 The Heritage: An Old Profession
Cosmic law of evolution starts "from a relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a relatively definite, coherent heterogeneity." Herbert Spencer, 1862.
Librarianship is an old profession that only recently emerged as a new branch of learning, a new discipline. Yet, as S. J. Pierce pointed out, the profession is still searching for "a common body of theory shaping the intellectual traditions of the field." 3 Library schools seldom, if ever, offer separate reading courses in the classical works of library theorists; stude nts frown when assigned essays that were published a decade ago, dismissing them as old (irrelevant) stuff; and others talk about information science as a new discipline, as if it emerged completely unrelated to the long history of librarianship. "We have paid so little attention to our own intellectual history," Pierce concluded, "that we may have to reconstruct it - almost from scratch." 4 Indeed, we need -- to paraphrase Pierce -- a course in "Dead Librarians," dedicated not to the his tory of libraries, but to the librarians and their intellectual contributions to our field.

Library philosophy, the intellectual expression of librarianship, developed gradually from the theoretical research in library technology, after it shifted its focus from pure practice to the theory about its operations. The increased attention given to the sociological aspects of these operations provided better understanding of the library role in the cultural processes of modifying behavior o f its individual patrons, and of the metaphysical principles governing these operations.

A library social mission was articulated in 1876. It was augmented by new library technological goals of efficient and effective use of graphic records, and codified by a formation of professional organization, defining librarians' professional, educational, and ethical standards. Librarianship is, in this book, considered as part of a larger universe, extending beyond the concept of the library or inf ormation science. The major function of librarianship is to acquire, process, preserve, and utilize recorded data. This, in turn, involves organization and dissemination of recorded data of value to a particular library community. However, these activities are not limited to traditional librarianship. Information gathering and recording were among the first types of activities in any society. The responsibility for general storehousing of information records was delegated to record keepers, the prelibraria ns. With the expansion of knowledge and methods of its recording, new library functions emerged to facilitate access to collections and to assist in interpreting their content. Later, these functions expanded into other nonprint media, and beyond the walls of the library. Today, the content and the format are often disjointed and processed separately by a variety of different information agencies. Therefore, a new name for an approach to interpreting various aspects of recorded knowledge is desirable. I call it metalibrarianship, to emphasize not only its interdisciplinary character, but also its focus on the relationships between the essential, minimal, and basic elements in the communication of any recorded data, information, or knowledge.

Metalibrarianship is not a theory in librarianship, but rather is about the nature of librarianship. Horizontally, it is a broad concept, offering an umbrella for a variety of approaches to the interpretation of knowledge records; vertically, it is a model of relationships between the necessary minimum number of elements, applicable to the most, if not all, different interpretations, or viewpoints, about the nature of recorded knowledge. The main point here is that the metalibrary interpretation is not limited to traditional librarianship. It is based on studying similarities, differences, and common denominators among various record-processing activities, from direct library provision of physical records, through the more theoretical transfer of the records' contents (information transfer), to a metaphysical definition of the records' meaning, their cognitive introception.

1.3 Assumptions
A few important assumptions are made right at the beginning of the study of metalibrarianship. First, no ideas are created or understood in isolation from a series of related other ideas; no ideas are unrelated. This is shown by this book's constant references to various past contributions to the development of library science.5

Second, ideas about reality and their practical applications evolve throughout the history of civilization. They might have been initiated by necessity and integrated into the then existing knowledge. Thinking about reality stimulates awareness of the incompleteness of knowledge by scrutinizing the new answers to previous questions. There are definite retrospective relationships between theory and practice, uncovered by constant philosophical inquiry about them. Consequently, the pr esent study depends heavily on a historical background of ideas. For obvious reasons of limited scope, the references are brief.

Third, although our knowledge of reality is fragmented at best, we assume that total reality is itself a singular holistic system. Learning new knowledge simply means a gradual discovery of some previously overlooked relationships, a process of finding additional pieces in a constantly expanding jigsaw puzzle. The deviations from that assumed uniformity of reali ty are considered perceptual or logical errors of identity.

Fourth, the final assumption in this introduction is methodological. I maintain that the basic minimal, sufficient relationship between any elements is triadic. The similarities or differences between two elements can be fully understood only with reference to a third element, which provides an essential context for that relationship. As it will be apparent from many examples provided later in this book, the triadic approaches, a lthough not explicitly identified, are at the base of many formulations of theories and models about a variety of relationships.

1.4 Objectives of the Study
In this book I attempt to answer some basic questions: What is the essence of librarianship? What is the meaning of information? What are the principles behind a desire for information transfer, preservation of older records, or creation of new ideas?

The operational answers to many of these questions are reflect ed in library management, which defines its policies, sets objectives, establishes criteria of adequacy, and provides mechanisms for library adaptation to changes.

I tentatively identify Library Information Science (LIS) with the field of studying and servicing records and their content. Records may be of a variety of formats, from print to audiovisual. Information is here defined as a description of data whether in physical or electronic format. It is an essential concept in any model, al though its description will vary with different interpretations of information, in, e.g., communication, chemical, electrical, mechanical, or neural systems. The degree of presence or absence of information in any phenomenon determines the scope and accuracy of understanding that phenomenon.

The physical view of information systems focuses on characteristics such as volumes of data, speed of transmission, reliability of system components, and adaptability to other information subsystems. Info rmation as a message conveys the views and intentions of its authors. The value of information to the recipients of these messages is reflected in the market demand for information, measured by the feedback about the recipients' reaction to the received information.

One of the objectives of this study is to identify philosophical aspects of librarianship as expressed in the library literature. It is a search for fundamentals, or a 'knowledge bas e' of the profession. "Ideally, a profession finds content, context, and methodologies relevant to its activities in subject discipline. It then takes these and applies them to its problems, remaining in touch with the source discipline for innovation and creativity while building its own intellectual foundations. Librarianship shows evidence of this evolution and . . . it is in the process of becoming a discipline in its own right." 6 As M. F. Stieg pointed out, the knowledge base has c hanged from literature at the beginning of this century, to social sciences in the twenties and thirties, and to metasciences, suggested by A.Kaplan in the 1960s. "The complexities of information transfer and library services have led to a situation where practically no knowledge is irrelevant," 7 making Kaplan's notion even more compelling.

1.4.1 Focus of the Argument
Following the review of past contributions, I propose a model for metalibrarianship. I make a dis tinction among the theory of the discipline, its practical implementations, and its philosophical meaning. Metalibrarianship is a metaphysical speculation about the extralibrary characteristics of bibliographic aspects of information that extend beyond library or information science.

The focus of this study is on the nature of relationships between the content of the messages contained in the carriers of information and their conceptual interpretation by the receiver of the messages. E ach interpretation addresses different aspects of relationships. The goal of this model is to relate the categories of different interpretations in one, coherent system.

The relationships are defined internally and interpreted externally from metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical viewpoints. The networks of relations between their internal structures and external interpretations define the discipline of metalibrarianship.

Practical values of the model lie in providing an insight into the intermediary functions of librarians, and in identifying common denominators that unify various and divergent library activities.

Recently there has been a noticeable shift of interest away from the acquisition of data, toward access to them, and from the preservation of recorded messages to their utilization. Yet the basic role of librarians as mediators, linking the sources of information with their recipients, although not changed, is not yet fully understood by many librarians and most library patrons.

1.4.2 Tentative Hypothesis
I assume the existence of metaphysical essence, which is expressed metaphorically within a comprehensive philosophical framework of metalibrarianship. It is described differently by different disciplines, for different purposes. Therefore, all recorded knowledge is metaphorical. Metalibrarianship attempts to provide a philosophical framework for a variety of approaches to recorded knowledge. This is an open syst em, subject to constant modifications.

1.5 Emerging Philosophy
Metalibrarianship addresses metaphysical essence, epistemological nature, and ethical values and purposes of information agencies.
(a) Metaphysical essence relates to the basic relationships between recorded concepts and their cognition. They define the ultimate realities of librarianship. Some writers limit the content of the records to information as an energy in the universe, others focus on information-as-d ata in factual knowledge about anything, or on information-as-ideas expressing subjectivism of intellectual knowledge. To me, the relationships between all relevant concepts, their meaning, and the interpretation by the receiver of the message--all these fall into the category of basic relations.
(b) The epistemological nature of relations describes the processes of balancing the empirical tendencies of reducing ideas to data, with the metaphysical claims of their independent existence. Epistem ological validity of these processes is determined by logical analysis.
(c) Ethical values and purposes of library operations are expressed by their ideal goals of providing satisfactory but also objective services to library patrons. In this sense, librarianship is like intellectual cartography, orienting people to specific ideas. 8 Or, as J. L. Wheeler phrased it earlier, it is "the map of knowledge or 'countries of the mind' represented by library collections of published infor mation." 9

More recently, the metaphor of mapmaking was carried further by R. J. Merikangas to whom it stands for the unifying mental activity of arranging everything in a mental map, from bibliographic instruction to pathfindings and problem-solving schemes. "I see us making maps through our library bibliographic systems . . . [providing] assistance and instructional systems, . . . used by readers who have become mapmakers themselves . . . [creating] mental maps of our system s . . . by which they traverse the maps to the knowledge-places they seek." 10

1.6 Arrangements of the Content.

The content of this book consists of (a) an introduction to the study of the nature and scope of librarianship as a discipline, (b) a description of the philosophical relevance of its subject matter, (c) a proposal for an all-encompassing meta-library model, and (d) examples of the model's applications to library operations.

Part O ne briefly discusses the emergence of librarianship. Major accomplishments relevant to the intellectual development of librarianship are noted in Chapter Two. Their impact on the diversification of library functions is traced in Chapter Three, and Chapter Four brings together definitional disagreements and common denominators of different aspects of librarianship.

In Part Two, the general nature of philosophical inquiry i s described in Chapter Five, its applications to the philosophical interpretation of librarianship are discussed in Chapters Six and Seven, providing examples of philosophical debate on the nature of knowledge in Chapter Eight.11

Part Three summarizes my previous essays on metalibrarianship, updated and expanded by more recent literature on the subject. Chapter Nine outlines the intellectual environment for the philosophy of librarianship. In Chapter Ten, the concept of information is examined and its role in metalibrarianship is redefined. In Chapter Eleven the theory of metalibrarianship is presented, and a model of metalibrary system is proposed. Possible application of metalibrarianship to the interpretation of library practice is discussed in Chapter Twelve by summarizing philosop hical and theoretical aspects of management in general, and by relating the theory of management to the library environment. The chapter includes a comparison between information science, management of libraries and metalibrarianship, and a suggestion of a model for for the redefined metalibrary information science. It ends with a critique of the metalibrary approach, and an epilogue. An appendix listing major contributors to the philosophy of librarianship and cited references completes the study.

The book offers an approach to the discipline that may or may not be accepted by the reader. A consensus here is irrelevant, but constructive criticism, a dialogue that would contribute to a better understanding of the basic premises of librarianship, is highly desirable, since it will reinforce the very purpose of this study. Knowledge of reality is, and always will be, incomplete. It is an open system of evolving objective theories and of constantly changi ng subjective speculations.

Metalibrarianship
Table of Contents
Tables and Diagrams
Chapter 2: Historical milestones in Librarianship

1. The quotation is from Aristotle's "Analytical Posteriori," A-54, Aristotle Selections, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938, p.23.

2. Spencer, H. (1862, 6th ed. reissued 1937), First Principles, London.

3. Pierce, S. J. (September 1992). "Dead Germans and the Theory of Librarianship," American Libraries, 23(8), p. 641.

4. Pierce, op. cit., p. 643.

5. Source material for this book was collected over many years. Although a real effort has been made to identify all authors cited, some references might have been unintentionally and regretfully omitted. All direct quotations in the book are, of course, verified. I plan to follow the publication of this book with "Notes on the Philosophy of Librarianship," which will review resources consulted but not included in the present study, and will allow for correcting any errors or omission in the present manuscript.

6. Stieg, M. F. (1992), Change and Challenge in Library and Information Science Education , Chicago: American Library Association, p. 9.

7. Ibid.

8. Wright, H. C. (1982), " An Interdisciplinary Philosophy of Librarianship," Annual Conference of the Society of Educators and Scholars [Microform], Union, N.J., September 29-October 2,1982.(ERIC ED 227 864), p. 5.

9. Wheeler, J. L. (1946), Progress and Problems in Education for Librarians, New York: Carnegie Corporation.

10. Merikangas, R. J. (1987 ), "Theory and Practice of Library Client Interaction," The Reference Librarian, p. 301.

11. Extensive references to other works, especially in the first two parts of the book, are provided to illustrate the multiplicity of direct and indirect relationships between the subject matter of librarianship, its philosophy, and the proposed concept of metalibrarianship, as expressed by writers in and outside the field. However, since the term 'phi losophy' is used in library literature very loosely, often with little or no relevance to philosophical inquiry, references to such essays are omitted in this book.