Page 137 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

136 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.11, 2019

Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of
Journal of Library Science in China
Vol.45, 2019

No.1

The hierarchies of social epistemology and the essences of library system

ZHOU Wenjie〇a〇
*
Social Epistemology, initially developed by Jesse Hauk Shera and some other scholars, aims
at providing a theoretical foundation for Library and Information Science (LIS). However, due
to deficiencies in the follow-up research, the relationship between professional activities of
librarianship and the optimization of the different levels of social intelligence remain vague.
For this reason, the present study aims at constructing a theoretical framework to shed light
on the social foundations of LIS based on two basic dimensions for librarianship, patrons and
recourses, with the combination of the diverse types and characteristics of professional practice of
librarianship.
The background of this research is the confusion and perplexity that LIS community has
experienced in recent years due to an incomplete understanding of the essence of library services
leading to the theoretical development of LIS lagging behind the evolution of librarianship
practice. In order to bridge this gap, this study constructs a theoretical framework which focuses on
the hierarchical structure of social epistemology to clarify the above mentioned confusion.
The paper concludes that patrons and resources could be regarded as two axes to divide
the theoretical vision of LIS into four areas. Firstly, those patrons who do not have identified
information needs are willing to use the public resources in the library to satisfy the first level
of social intelligence development needs. Secondly, patrons, who have specific information
problems and are willing to access the information resources initially developed for public users
but including professional content, meet the second level of social intelligence development
needs. Thirdly, patrons who focus on specific professional issues but without clear statement on
their information need tend to make use of the library retrieval system to meet the third level
of social intelligence development need. Fourthly, patrons who have identified information
problems are willing to seek academic information supporting service from librarians to satisfy

* Correspondence should be addressed to ZHOU Wenjie, Email: wj_lp@sina.com, ORCID: 0000-0001-8001-4530