- G.N. Shvetsova-Vodka concludes that different modern definitions of the concept of "book" refer to different types of documents on the peculiarities of the material medium of information, its symbolic form and way of perception by people. She also notes that no convincing arguments in favor of limiting the scope of the concept of "book" to one or another value have been found [14, p. 254]. It is not possible to say what kind of document (in terms of classification) is a book, because the book's definitions take into account a variety of features.
In order to understand the difference between a book and other docksG.N. Shvetsova-Vodka considers the place of the book in the social communication and information process. This process consists of three main elements: a communicant, a document as a channel of information communication, a recipient [14, p. 255].
In order for a "document" to become a "book", the activity of communication intermediaries (CPs) is needed on the way from the communicant to the recipient, who turn the original document created by the author into a book and facilitate its delivery to the recipient of information.
The place of the book in the social communication and information process can be shown in this way:
- Author - Initial document - Communication intermediary-1 (CP-1)
- -Derived document (book) - Communication intermediary-2 (CP-2)
- Receiver (consumer) of information.
In the proposed scheme, the author is a communicant or creator of information, who prepares the original document, in which the original information is recorded.
Source document - manuscript or original version of the message on a single carrier.
- CP-1 - publishing house or edition of serial edition, the center of documents depositing, the company of grammar recording, video recording, etc.
Derived document - edition or publication, deposited document, published document.
- CP-2 - institutions of book distribution and book use system, which bring the published document to its user, make it available to many. These are the areas of book trade and subscription to periodicals, librarianship and scientific information activities.
The recipient of information is the reader, listener, and viewer.
Thus, based on the understanding of the book's place in the social communication and information process, G.N. Shvetsova-Vodka gives the following definition: a book is a document created as a result of the activities of MP-1 (book-publishing or editorial-publishing organization) and received by the recipient of information as a result of the activities of MP-2 (institutions of book distribution and book use systems) [14, p. 256]. This definition emphasizes that, unlike any other source document, a book has been intended for an undefined circle of persons or for an abstract reader (information consumer) since its creation. For this purpose, the source document becomes a publication, that is, a published document.
It follows from this that the book by its functional essence is a document published, regardless of the form of publication (publication or deposit), the features of the material medium of information, the symbolic system of its transmission and the channel of its perception by man.
To turn a document into a book, the activities of CP-1 and CP-2 are mandatory. In this regard, G.N. Shvetsova-Vodka gives the following final definition of the book: "A book is a document published, published or deposited, provided to the public through the book trade and libraries" [14, p. 258].
G.N. Shvetsova-Vodka, in order to clarify the concept of "book" considers the place of the book in the real system of documentary communications as a whole, that is, in comparison with the functioning (way of providing for use) of the original document and the archival document [14, p. 259].
The original document is called the document, which is created by the communicant for use in the near future for the transfer of information to the recipient. Such a document can be transferred from the communicant to the recipient either directly or through a variety of means of communication (MP3).
The original document can be used to prepare the original document in the process of creating the book. By means of КП-1 and КП-2 the initial document turns to the book and gets to the consumer of the information through system of book business.
But in other case the document initial can be or destroyed after performance by it of those functions for which it was created, or can get in special storehouses - archives or museums where it from the document initial functionally turns to the archival document. Physically, such a document remains the same as that which was created by the communicant, but its functions in society change, it becomes an archival document. Archives preserve not all documents, but the most important ones in legal, scientific or artistic terms. To preserve and organize the use of archival documents, the activities of MP-4 - archives or museums - are needed.