Multidimensional Model of Library Space in the Convergence Era: Foreign Scientific Discourse

The aim of the article is to study a multidimensional model of library space in the convergence era, presented within the framework of modern foreign scientific discourse. Research methods. In this article, a set of approaches and methods are applied: discourse as a methodologically important concept in researching studies and approaches to library space in foreign science; systematic approach, through the prism of which a library is positioned as an autonomous system; structural and functional approach, which helped to reveal the dimensions of library space, and interpret it as a part of common socio-cultural environment; substantive approach, which pictured peculiarities of restructuring library space in the multidimensionality direction (mutual enrichment of virtual, physical and social spaces); methods of analysis and synthesis, descriptive method. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the model of multidimensional space of the library in the convergence era is considered as an important stage in the development of the Library 4.0 concept. Main conclusions. Presented in this article, the model of the multidimensional space of the modern library, which consists of three subspaces (physical, social and digital (virtual)), is an important stage in the development of the Library 4.0 concept. It implies the convergence of the mentioned above subspaces, each of which complements and enriches the other one. An analysis of foreign scientists’ works proves that many of these researchers support the idea of the convergence of these subspaces only with a bias toward digitalisation, which devalues the physical and social spaces of the library. That is why the model of the multidimensional space of the modern library provides for convergent regulatory processes that balance physical, social and digital subspaces in such a way that allows preserving the idea of the library as a basic educational, social and communicative structure that stimulates the development of all structural elements of the personality in the 21st century.