Books are tools that systematically record knowledge content in certain forms and symbols (words, pictures, electronic files, etc.) on certain materials to express ideas, accumulate experience, preserve knowledge and spread knowledge. ) according to a certain style.
(A) the concept of books
UNESCO defines a book as: any printed matter with more than 49 pages, excluding the front cover and back cover, published by a publishing house (enterprise), with a specific title and author's name and an international standard book number, is called a book.
Books are works recorded on certain forms of materials with words or other information symbols for the purpose of spreading knowledge. Books are the product of human social practice, and they are a specific and developing tool for knowledge dissemination.
The word "book" first appeared in Shi Ji Xiao Shijia. When Liu Bang invaded Xianyang, "He Du first received the imperial script of the Prime Minister of Qin. Pei Gong is Hanwang. What is the Prime Minister? ... Hanwang knows the world, how many accounts are there, how strong and weak, and how can the people suffer? " The "book" here refers to maps and documents, which is different from the book we are talking about today. Further exploration of the origin of the word "book" can be traced back to the allusion of "the river draws a picture and Luo draws a book" recorded in the Book of Changes, which reflects the close relationship between the picture and the word. Although it is a myth and legend, it shows the fact that words originated from pictures. Pictures and words are really closely linked. The ancients called various forms of writing "calligraphy" and the method of writing was "calligraphy". The word "book" is also used as a verb in writing, such as "too many books to write", "too many books to write" and "too many books to write". Later, the "book" was further extended to all written records. Such as letters, documents, torture books, imperial edicts, alliance books and so on. With the development of history, people's understanding of books is constantly changing. Today, people no longer call all written records "books". For example, documents, letters, imperial edicts and league books, although all with the word "book", are not within the scope of books. China's ancient records, most of which are memorable, such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen, all belong to this category. Their function is mainly to help memory, so as to refer to it when necessary, and their nature is equivalent to the archives of later generations. Later, people realized from practice that these recorded materials can be turned into tools to sum up experience and impart knowledge. Therefore, works aimed at imparting knowledge and being read by people have appeared. In this way, the word book has gained a relatively new and narrow meaning. Later, any written record that is not aimed at spreading experience, imparting knowledge and reading for people is not a book; With the development of productive forces and social progress, people began to consciously use words to publicize ideas and spread knowledge, and at the same time gradually formed a book system, and documents dealing with daily affairs formed a document system. As a result, books and archives gradually separated.
In ancient China, people gave different definitions to books. For example, from the content of the book, there are: "six hundred schools, the general name of the book" ("preface to the history"). From the point of view of book style, it is considered that "it was written in a book named bamboo and silk" (Preface to Explaining Words). Obviously, these definitions are the products of the times, based on the actual situation at that time, and it is impossible to make a comprehensive summary of the future development. However, the above definition has correctly revealed the content and formal characteristics of books at that time, and "book" as a specific concept is different from the original written records. After thousands of years of evolution, the scope of knowledge as the content of books has expanded, the methods of description and expression have increased, and the material carriers and production methods used have also changed many times. As a result, various types of books, writing methods, carriers, book systems and various modes of production have emerged. All these have prompted people to have a more systematic and clear concept of books.
Until today, books are divided into broad and narrow sense. In real life, we are often late for some interesting phenomena: for the concepts of "library" and "library and information work", "book" is a broad sense, which refers to all kinds of reading materials, including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, epigraphy rubbings, hand-scrolls, contemporary publications, newspapers, and even audio-visual materials, simple emblem films (volumes), machine-readable catalogues and other new technology products; In the practical work of library and information institutions, people should compare books with periodicals, newspapers, scientific and technological reports, technical standards, audio-visual materials, microforms and so on. , but there are differences. When the former is different from the latter, the scope of the book is greatly reduced, which is the narrow sense of "book".
(2) the elements that make up a book
From bamboo slips to today's books, no matter how their forms and contents change, as long as they are carefully investigated and analyzed, we can see that they all have the following elements:
1. Knowledge and information should be disseminated.
2. There should be text and image signals to record knowledge.
3. There should be a material carrier for recording text and image signals.
4. The production technology and craft of books are also the basic conditions for producing books.