From practice to the production of knowledge: Libraries and pre-scientific library science

Abstract

The inseparable relationship between libraries and Library Science leads to a reconstitution of the history of these institutions, starting with the earliest period, antiquity. This moment of writing birth of the first records of knowledge, and therefore the first collections. Both at this time and later in the Middle Ages, practices in the library environment precede systematized theories or structures of thought. The desire to guard and preserve is common in both the libraries of antiquity and in the libraries of the Middle Ages, which makes it possible to approximate these distinct moments under the name of a pre-scientific Library Science. For that, a bibliographical research is summoned by several authors who approach the history of the library, particularly, linked to those two moments. It is believed that to study this long period of history and of which Library Science is a part, would enable a greater understanding of Library Science, as well as their practices in libraries, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.