The preservation of both the content and the material form of a book when consumed is as much a must for a book as for a document in general.
One of the properties of a document is that any document can be characterized by the formula of the characteristic of a communication message (Lassuella's formula: "Whosays, what, inwhichchannel, towhom, withwhateffect", i.e. "who, what, to whom, to whom, through what channel, with what effect reports") [citation: 14, p. 280]. Correspondence to this formula is also inherent in the book. The questions contained in this formula are usually answered by the publisher's design of the book (title page, content, cover, output in the publisher's products).
The same questions are answered by the bibliographic characteristics of the book, very briefly by the bibliographic description, and in more detail by the abstract, abstract, and review. To answer the question "What effect has social communication had? - Research of reading and the readership is carried out, special scientific disciplines are developed - psychology and sociology of reading, readership.
The book has one more property that the document possesses. This is an activity character, which defines a document as a result of the activity of its creators (as for the book, it is the activity of the author, publisher, printer, etc.).
The specific properties of the book, as well as its specific properties, are conditioned by the peculiarities of the book as a specific concept of Document IV.
The function of information dissemination is closely related to such a property of the book as addressing a fairly wide, or, more precisely, an indefinite (unlimited) circle of readers (information consumers) beforehand. First of all, this property was noted in the book when it was compared with current and archival documents.
G.N. Shvetsova-Vodka draws attention to the fact that the purpose of the book to a wide, undefined circle of readers, is of great importance not only the author's installation, with which the document is created, the source for the book, but also the conditions for the creation of the book (that is, the activity of CP-1) and the conditions for the distribution and use of the book (that is, the activity of CP-2). The system of book distribution (book trade) is capable of distributing many copies of the book among an unknown circle of persons; libraries will ensure the use of one or more copies of the book by the largest number of readers [14, p. 284].
It is the indication of the uncertainty of the recipients to whom the books are transmitted as sources of information that brings the concept of a book closer to the concept of mass communication (but the very concept of mass communication remains rather unclear). There is no exact answer to the question: can scientific communication be considered mass? In computer science, it is customary to distinguish between mass and special, or mass, special and personal types of social information. In both cases, scientific information refers to special information, and mass information includes "journalistic, aesthetic, and everyday" or "socio-political, everyday, popular scientific information".
G.N. Shvetsov-Vodka believes that the optimal explanation of the nature of the book's reader's address as a means of communication is that the book should be considered as a means of the retitive communication process. In the communication system, signals can be sent either to precisely known addressees or to a certain probability plurality of addressees. The nature of this orientation is the basis for dividing communication processes into axial and retial ones. Axial communication process implies the transfer of a message to clearly defined (specific person, group) recipients of information. Retial communication process takes place when message transmission is carried out for an indefinite quantitative and unknown qualitatively set of recipients. Retial communication systems are characterized by anonymity of the recipient [14, p. 285].
Also among the specific properties of the book one should mention the specific historical character of the book. The book is created by the author in response to the need of society at this or that historical stage of its development; its appearance becomes possible only as a result of public recognition of its value.
- Firstly, it is the recognition of the value of the original document, its admission to publication as a result of evaluation by editors, reviewers, etc.
- Secondly, it is the publishing accompaniment of the published work. Even when the same document is published in different historical situations, its publishing support - a foreword, comments - can change the general orientation, ideological nature of the publication.