Do We Have Any L-Vision? Multi-Level Comparison of Selected Global Library Visions

Abstract

The subject of future of libraries recurs regularly, whenever the future of the librarians’ profession is discussed due to the decrease in readership rates, during the reorganization and liquidation of libraries or in the technological context. The article aims to analyze in detail the global visions of libraries formulated so far. Thanks to the categorization, it was possible to identify the main similarities and differences of the analyzed visions, to list the authors and main categories of visions, and to confront new expected social roles of libraries with the sociological and praxeological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, the creator of such concepts as cultural capital or social power. To present the results, the content analysis method and content-based categorization technique were used.