The Documentation Movement:Lost in the Hubbub of Technology

This paper criticizes the "format-oriented" trend that has originated from the contemporary orientation toward technology in Library and Information Science (LIS), by analyzing the historical, theoretical and philosophic ideas of the documentation movement, then reviewing its ideals and outcomes.Approach: This research was based on an analytical-historical procedure. By studying the history of the formation and development of the documentation movement in late-19th century Europe, the researcher tried to investigate transformations in fundamental traditions dominant on Library and Information Science (LIS)from that time up to now. LIS theorists should deeply reflect upon the ideals of the documentation movement and the scope of its consequences. The most important outcome of this movement has been to attract the attention of librarians to "content" and to decrease their dependency on "format". However, from five decades ago, concurrent with the development of information technology, this outcome has been less achieved; an extreme orientation toward technology has separated librarians from "content" and once again made them dependent on "format". Facing the conflicts between the two traditions i.e. “machinists” and “humanists” in the LIS profession, a new mental framework should be designed. This framework must originate from the model of the documentation movement.