Epistemological tensions in Bibliography and Documentation: the different views of Otlet and Ranganathan

Abstract

The epistemological understanding of Bibliography and Documentation presents different perspectives regarding their natures. Seen both as activities and as disciplines, Bibliography and Documentation were approached in different ways by important thinkers in the informational field, especially by Otlet and Ranganathan. In this context, we present a study that aimed to investigate the understanding that Otlet and Ranganathan had of Bibliography and Documentation and how they both related them to Library Science. From a methodological point of view, a comparative analysis was carried out between Otlet's Traité de Documentation (1934) and Ranganathan's Social Bibliography or Physical Bibliography for Librarians (1952) and Documentation: Genesis and Development (1973). The results showed that, for Otlet, Bibliography and Documentation were different stages of an evolutionary scientific movement that had moved from a procedural dimension to a methodological-scientific dimension, disconnecting from Library Science and entering the so-called Bibliology. Ranganathan believed Documentation was a set of activities analogous to cataloging and reference service (library activities) whereas Bibliography, endowed with greater scientificity than Documentation, was focused on bibliographic production and its role in social communication, also supported by Library Science. We conclude that Otlet's emancipatory speech made way for the establishment of a document science (Documentation), while Ranganathan's speech gave scientific authority to Library Science in order to deal with both Documentation and Bibliography.