Page 156 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

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Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.46, 2020 155

to explain the existence of libraries) for both the traditional library science and LIS consists of
the concepts of data, meaning, knowledge, information, document, society’s communication
system, library, and information users. This conceptual constellation further shows that libraries
exist as a part of society’s mechanism to ensure effective and efficient information search and
access, which forms the basis for defining the library and information profession in society’s
division of labour and defining LIS in the world’s knowledge domain. This study also shows
that, to support the mission of the library and information profession, LIS needs to take questions
concerning information search and information access as its primary questions, and to develop
related philosophical or meta theories, scientific or empirically obtained theories, and a variety of
technologies to form the body of its knowledge.
Looking at the actual development path of the discipline in light of this logical structure, it
is clear that the proposal of a library science in the 19th century failed to recognize that library
is only part of a bigger picture and that this failure was part of the reason why documentation
emerged in early 20th century. It is also clear that the merger between the traditional library
science and the documentation-based information science conforms better to the discipline’s
logical structure as identified by this study, and represents a commendable move towards
developing a logically unified discipline to support society’s information search and access.
However, due to the lack of explicit and systematic elucidation of the discipline’s logical structure
in the decades following the merger, LIS has not been a solidly integrated discipline. As iSchool
mobilizes all possible resources, including all information components within LIS, to build iField,
there is a great danger that LIS will be ruptured again to free the information components from
it. This would leave a discipline of librarianship to stand on its own once more, except that it will
stand on a much weaker position than the traditional librarianship or library science prior to the
formation of LIS.

Fundamental issues in the theoretical research of library science in the past
decade

WU Dan〇, LU Liuxing, DONG Jing, FAN Shu, XU Shuang & LI Xiuyuan
〇a*
Theoretical research is not only the basis for the discipline construction of library science, but
also the foundation for the development of library careers. In the theoretical research of library
science, the exploration of the fundamental issues is one of the important contents. This paper
analyzes fundamental issues in the theoretical research of library science in the past decade.
We utilize literature survey method and retrieved articles on theoretical research using (theory*
OR framework OR conceptual* OR grounded OR underpinnings OR model OR paradigm) as

* Correspondence should be addressed to WU Dan, Email: danwoo@126.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-2611-7317.