Starting from the problematization of the meanings of science and library professions and institutions, the paper surfaces and analyzes from perspectives equally philosophical, epistemological, and scientometric, the premises and conditions which situate – willingly or not – the project of a (any) genuine research which intends to study the Romanian literature on librarianship as it appears in books and periodicals. To this end, earlier researches will also be placed on the dissection table of analysis, but meanwhile the problematic and even (...) symptomatic experiences that the editors of the journal Philobiblon and its Romanian anthologies by the title Hermeneutica Bibliothecaria – Antologie Philobiblon have to confront are also organically exposed. These experiences outline as well the issues that practically any present or future responsible research of this type should focus on, as also the neuralgic points and mental traps which – once identified – will have to be either avoided, or assumed in the course of these researches. These traps, resulting precisely from the functioning and environment of this literature – which is, or pretends to be, equally professional and scientific – are and can be dangerous in the future, yet also eloquent with regard to their publishing and affiliation institutions. (shrink)

The present research studies more thoroughly and extends from global perspectives the ideas elaborated in a former study dedicated to that which was named there – related to libraries, but not exclusively – symbolic marketing, embodied and objectified as a metaphor. “Living”, active and efficient metaphor. The analyses focus, on the one hand, on the theoretical, conceptual – and even philosophical – aspects of “symbolic marketing”. On the other hand, applying these theoretical considerations, we present and examine as a case (...) study the journal entitled Philobiblon (http://www.bcucluj.ro/philo/), edited by the Lucian Blaga Central University Library (Cluj, Romania), and the marketing procedures associated with it. The periodical is a transdisciplinary scientific organ published in English, destined from its beginnings to the market of international interlibrary publication exchange, which has developed an entire network of peculiar, individual and characteristic marketing structures and initiatives: living, objectified symbolic-metaphoric structures which are evolving and getting diversified not only in the context but also with a view to globalization. (shrink)