Summary
The modern librarianship is experiencing fundamental changes in the conditions of turbulent flows of economic globalization and new technological challenges. Therefore, the need arises to analyze librarianship as a sector that should operate efficiently, because the distinction between non-profit and commercial areas of culture becomes more and more blurred and elastic. At the very beginning of his paper, the author gives a brief look at the current developments in the field of librarianship. Then he discusses the modified Cobb-Douglas production function as a possible method to evaluate the effects of technological progress on the development of librarianship. Economic meaning of the analysis of technological progress in librarianship consists in considering its impact on the growth of production of library services and labor productivity, as well as the efficiency of library resources. The theory of production and technological progress, as a rule, has been taken as the theoretical and methodological basis for the research of significance of certain factors of production as a source of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, in the economy as a whole, and in individual economic sectors. Connected observation of the results of applying the modified Cobb-Douglas production function, under the condition that the sum of the coefficients of elasticity equal to one, and the assumption that their sum differs from one, can provide valuable knowledge about the structure of economic growth of librarianship and effects of technological progress on its development. Particularly important is the knowledge that refers to the component of technological progress resulting from increase in the level of qualifications of librarians, improvement of organization of libraries and their administration, with increasing efficiency, quality and range of library services, as well as specialization of libraries.

Keywords:
librarianship, production function, technological progress, labor productivity, capital efficiency, economies of scale, contribution, factors of production, growth rate, development

Full text (1794 KB)