Self-Examination: The Present and Future of Librarianship [Paperback]

What makes us librarians? What is it we do that is indispensable? John Budd joins an august group of library-science luminaries, such as Pierce Butler, Jesse Shera, and Michael Gorman, whose works and example invite professional and critical self-examination. Here, Budd challenges us to confront the uneasy truth of whether libraries still represent people's will and intellect, or the cabalistic enclaves of an old guard? Through intellectually rich and engaging entrees into ethics, democracy, social responsibility, governance, and globalization, he makes the case that librarians who fail to grasp the importance of their heritage will never truly respond to societal change or the needs of the individual user.John M. Buddis Professor and Associate Director of the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His 2001 book,Knowledge and Knowing in Library and Information Science: A Philosophical Framework, was awarded the 2002 Highsmith Library Literature Award.

Budd, whose earlier Knowledge and Knowing in Library and Information Science: A Philosophical Framework won the 2002 Highsmith Library Literature award, continues his philosophical discourse. Viewing an absence of reflection as a shortcoming in librarianship, these seven chapters provide opportunities and suggestions for reflection, with consciousness of purpose serving as the basis for reflection. Citing works by Jesse Shera, Pierce Butler, and Michael Gorman as well as Aristotle, Hobbes, Habermas, Foucault, Kant, and other philosophers, Budd examines both the epistemology and phenomenology of librarianship, exploring ethics, democracy, intellectual freedom, social responsibility, the information society, and place and identity. The major question Budd asks is, Should social epistemology and discourse ethics inform our practice? It is left for the profession to answer. Library Journal

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