Russian libraries on the threshold of postcontemporaneity

Abstract

It is generally recognized that in the 21stcmentury, transfer to the postcontemporary civilization embraces every industry of public production and social communication. The nihilistic concept of postcontemporaneity embodied in digital economy and artificial intellect that does not need classical book culture and traditional library practice (biblionihilis) presents a technocratic delusion. The author characterizes in brief the human socio-cultural evolution from the pre-literate Paleolithic arts to global digital communication of today. This evolution evidences that the book culture is an essential anthropogenic resource of the deepest genetic and sociocultural origins. Every type of library, no less than the artificial intellect, supports education of moral, responsible, independently thinking, creative generation of Russian citizens. The library profession is the profession of the future even to a greater extent than of the present. The author concludes that integration of book and digital cultures will take the Russians to postcontemporaneity. The library intellectuals are responsible for preserving the book culture. The digital culture is an instrument of laying the way to postcontemporaneity.