Flaubert, Foucault, and the Bibliotheque Fantastique: toward a postmodern epistemology for library science - Gustave Flaubert, Michel Foucault - Qualitative Research

Library Trends, Spring, 1998 by Gary P. Radford

The other monks work in the scriptorium and may know the list of

the volumes that the library houses. But a list of titles often

tells very little; only the librarian knows, from the collection

of the volume, from its degrees of inaccessibility, what secrets,

what truths or falsehoods, the volume contains. Only he decides

how, when, and whether to give it to the monk who requests it;

sometimes he first consults me [the abbot]. Because not all truths

are for all ears, not all falsehoods can be recognized as such by

a pious soul. (Eco, 1983, p. 36)

It is the librarian, and the librarian alone, who determines the truth of an individual text through his knowledge of where that text is located in the labyrinth. In the positivist world view, the "truth" of an event in the world is "discovered" by understanding its relationship to other events according to the rules of an underlying structure that cannot be observed directly. In Eco's positivist library/labyrinth, the "truth" of an individual text is known relative to the underlying classificatory system of the library. It is this system that is so fanatically protected by the monks in Eco's novel, even to the point of murder. Both systems are known only to "experts" (the scientist, the librarian) who have had the appropriate training. Only the scientist/ librarian can make appropriate inferences regarding the "truth" or relevance of an event/book given their privileged knowledge of the underlying system of relationships/classifications.

In contrast to the librarian, the library user is a person who must disrupt and ultimately prevent the realization of the ideal library. There is an inherent and powerful tension between the ideal library's goals of order and completeness with the goal of providing a user with service, since allowing texts to circulate inevitably introduces disorder. Librarian stereotypes, particularly those of female librarians, are manifestations of the tension that is felt by both librarians and users (Redford & Radford, 1997). As a result, an overarching concern with order does not, and cannot, lead to a satisfying and productive library experience.

Such tensions structure the experience of the modern library environment for both librarian and user. Users' are often overawed by the library. The sheer volume of texts the library contains is intimidating enough, but an equal, if not greater, problem is how to navigate within and around these texts to find the one that is needed (see Kuhlthau, 1988a, 1988b, 1990). The user must engage with the rationality of the library directly and must submit to its version of the order of things before the user can find what he/she needs. It is claimed by their creators that such systems of classification are designed with the goal of facilitating access to texts. However, viewed in the context of the tension between maintaining order and providing service, such systems can also be perceived as barriers that serve to deny that same access. A user will usually feel confident that the needed text or information is available in the library. However, the prospect of embarking on the tortuous path that must be traversed in order to locate that text may evoke a sense of fear and uncertainty. Borges (1962), in the short story The Library of Babel, gives literary substance to this idea: