谁最早提出“文献计量学”这个词？

武夷山

一般认为，Bibliometrics是美国目录学家普利查德（Alan Pritchard）于1969年提出的。但在2014年6月12日出版的《自然》杂志上，比利时情报学家鲁索发表短文指出，比利时图书馆学家Paul Otlet早在其1934年发表的著作Traité de Documentation（《文献论》）中，就呼唤建立一门新学科，叫作bibliométrie（文献计量学），这是Otlet造出来的一个词，其定义为“与图书文献的出版与阅读有关的所有方面之测度”。

Otlet举例说，应该记录一下某本书或某位作者被阅读的频次。他认为，既然在多数科学领域（包括生物学和社会学），数学都变得日益重要，那么图书馆学也不应例外，也应纳入数学。

原文如下。

 Forgotten founder of bibliometrics

Besides being one of the conceptual inventors of the Internet (P. Ball Nature 509, 425;2014), the Belgian librarian Paul Otlet first coined the term ‘bibliometrics’. In his book (1934), he called for the foundation of a new field, bibliométrie, which he defined as the measurement of all  aspects related tothe publication and reading of books and documents.

As an example, Otlet suggested recording how often a particular book or author is read. He noted that mathematics was becoming increasingly important in most scientific fields,including in biology and sociology, and felt that it should be included in library science as well.

Ronald Rousseau KU Leuven, Belgium.

ronald.rousseau@kuleuven.be