Rózsa, George: Some Considerations of the Role of Scientific Libraries in the Age of Scientific and Technical Revolution. An Essay and Approach to the Problem (A MTAK kiadványai 50. Budapest, 1970)

14 with a good knowledge of the particular scientific methods and skills of library workd What the concept of the "learned or scientific librarian" implies is the acceptance of the individual librarian as scientist or scholar but it also implies the underestimation of library work as a profession of scientific nature, while the concept of "library scientist" includes both of the former but on account of their unclarified content - in such an unfortunate way that it raises douts about of them. All this and other reasons not mentioned here have led to a standstill in library theory, sometimes even to its devaluation, and to the development of virtually irreconcilable trends and different "oriented" approaches. These can be outlined, by and large, as follows: library science (in close association with the public libraries)-on'enfed, documentation-oriented and history-oriented approaches. Let us now examine their development, content and the problems of their irreconcilability in an effort to find possibilities for a synthesis. Library science-oriented approach This approach subsists on the traditions of historically developed large libraries from the times when scientific information as a concept did not exist and when specialization in science, and consequently in the library field, was at an initial stage only, when the general scientific library directly furnished literature to science, being the only depository of scientific information. The intensive study and handling of highly valuable collections, the formulation of the place of the library to use a modern term in the division of labour, as well as the theoretical generalization, to some extent, of the scientific library's practice are all factors explaining as obvious the library science-oriented approach which has gradually developed into "Bibliothekswissenschaft", "library science" or "bibliotekovedenie". The appearance and the extremely rapid development of documentation and public libraries, owing to the unprecedented rate of scientific and technological progress and to the revolutionary changes in the public demands for culture and education particularly in the socialist countries have confronted libraries with a new situation throughout the world. The relative homogeneity of librarianship has disappeared, wide-ranging networks of special libraries and documentation centres have evolved, networks of public libraries have accounted for an ever growing share in the cultural budget, and society has shown an increasing interest in them. As a result of these two processes of opposite origin and purpose, the scientific library has - virtually or sometimes actually — been pushed into the background, and documentation with its natural freshness and expansive methods has taken over a considerable part of the information functions or has developed new ones the libraries had not been prepared to fulfil. Thus the scientific library seemed to have passed over to the defensive to some extent, and documentation with its new functions and methods 4 The number of professionals specializing in two or more disciplines has increased over the past few years (e.g. engineer-economists, applied and mathematical linguists, etc.). The development of complex and borderline disciplines involved complex training and qualifications, too,