圖書館事業之價值

The Values of Librarianship

二十世紀之末期，科技的突飛猛進，給圖書館帶來莫大的衝擊，展現於電子計算機，網際網路與全球資訊網等方面在圖書館的應用。但是和同一時期的重大政治、社會、經濟變革相比，其變更不能說太大。儘管圖書館歷經上述重大變更，而圖書館事業之中心價值始終在服務民眾。本文探討價值一詞之意義與內涵，圖書館與圖書館哲學，圖書館服務與服務價值，以及圖書館事業之價值。而本文結論指出，圖書館事業之價值，包括捍衛民眾智識自由以確保其平等取用記錄的知識與資訊，培養民眾讀寫素養與閱讀以達繼續教育與終身教育之理想，落實民主原則與理性主義於圖書館經營與服務，並且肩負起典掌人類記錄以完成歷史傳承之責任等，皆希望能繼續繁榮發展於二十一世紀中。

The dramatic technological changes have been seen in libraries in the end of the 20th century. But in comparison to changes in politics, society, economics, and other aspects of human life, the changes in libraries were smaller. Among the various factors of change, computer, Internet and World Wide Web were the forces made biggest impact on libraries. No matter how big is the change, the ultimate goal of a library is serving its users, and the main value of librarianship is library services. This paper studies the meaning and content of the term of ”value”; library and library philosophy; library services and service values; the values of librarianship. This paper concludes that: the values of librarianship such as defending intellectual freedom of all people in a free society to ensure their equity of access to recorded knowledge and information, encouraging literacy and reading to achieve lifelong learning and continuous education, employing democracy and rationalism in library management and services, preserving the human record to ensure that to be passed on to future generations, etc., will hopefully continue to stand and claim its importance in the 21st century.