About and on Behalf of Scriptum Est by Vesa Suominen
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2016-0115 |
| Date | 09 January 2017 |
| Published date | 09 January 2017 |
| Pages | 181-184 |
| Author | Steven Laporte |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
About and on Behalf of Scriptum
Est by Vesa Suominen
Steven Laporte
University Library, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Elsene, Belgium
Abstract
Purpose –This book review aims to draw attention to the often disregarded philosophical foundations of the
library. Both the library as an institution and the science that studies its workings, are critically analyzed and
put into an epistemological and even ideological perspective.
Design/methodology/approach –The original work by Vesa Suominen is explored in detail and its key
findings subjected to criticism.
Findings –The book displays great originality and questions a number of long held beliefs regarding the
library. Moving away from the more usual pragmatic and instrumentalist view of the library, the author
proposes an approach that values the content of a library independant of its user. This approach, however,
raises a number of questions.
Originality/value –Literatureon the philosophical aspectsof libraries and library science is scarce.Through
this review we try to kindle a discussion thatinvolves the basic mission statement ofthe modern library.
Keywords Librarians, Politics, Library users, Value analysis, Philosophy, Educational institutions,
Epistemology, Information industry, Gadamer
Paper type General review
Books that put library and librarianship (L&Lship) in a philosophical perspective are a rare
commodity. When they do exist, they tend to either single out a particular aspect of the
library –like the concept of information or literacy –for philosophic inquiry. Or they make
the library into an example of a broader philosophical argument, as is notably exemplified
by Michel Foucault (1990) and in more recent years by Luciano Floridi (2002).
In this view Dr Vesa Suominen has produced a unicorn. His book About and on Behalf of
Scriptum Est (Suominen, 2016) is concerned primarily with the library itself and
consequently it considers externalities from its perspective, instead of the other way around.
The book consists of two parts. The second part addresses the political and ideological
imprint on both the institution and the practices of the modern library. This aspect certainly
merits careful analysis in its own right. For the purpose of this review however, we will
focus on the first part, in which the theoretical framework is laid out.
In his book, the library is not represented merely as the institution we all think we know
so well. It and all its constitutional parts are considered together with the schooling that
allows one to become a library professional and the science that studies its workings.
In determining the basic constituent of the library the author makes a clear choice:
namely, that it is the document that constitutes the basic concept for making analyses of the
modern library. In an attempt to open up a substantial part of library science and
librarianship to philosophic discourse, the author confronts his elaboration of L&Lship with
a particular hermeneutical tradition, represented by the distinguished twenty-first century
philosophers Hans-Georg Gadamer (2003) and Paul Ricoeur (2016).
But even though the authorrefers to the documentas the quintessentialobject of concernin
a library, this is not entirelythe case. In fact he putsforward a new concept all together called
scriptum est, literally the “it is written.”This notion is kept purposefully vague by the author
but is held to encompass the products of literature so far. Possibly it may have been more
convenient to consider the shorter scriptum, denominating “written,”“the written”or even “it
was written”? But it may very well be the case that scriptum est was chosen in particular to
allow for an additional layer of meaning, namely, that what was written also matters.
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 1, 2017
pp. 181-184
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-09-2016-0115
Received 30 September 2016
Revised 28 October 2016
Accepted 29 October 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
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About and on
Behalf of
Scriptum Est
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