Using Aesthetics as an Approach to Defining a New Children's Cultural Foundation within the Library and Information Science Curriculum

摘要

In postmodern knowledge society, we are facing fundamental changes affecting the concepts of childhood and children's culture. These changes are characterized by a shift of focus away from a chiefly pedagogic and literary orientation in modern society to an aesthetically founded concept of children's culture in postmodern knowledge-based society. Arguments are presented in support of a necessary and real paradigm shift that considers the rationale underlying the functions and future of children's libraries. In arguing for a change of paradigms, the author uses developments in Danish library history and the history of enlightenment efforts in Denmark, which in many respects are similar to developments in the field in other European countries, as a case. This change of paradigms has decisively influenced the design of the children's library of the future. As a consequence, the author proposes that library and information science programs be changed and that greater focus be placed on leaching as a democratic and creative process and on the aesthetics of daily life.