Abstract This paper asks: Can Library Science be a science? In response, it answers “yes” and illuminates how by integrating three sets of ideas–the phenomena addressed by Library Science, ontology identifying these phenomena, and theory about them. This integration illuminates a direction toward developing a scientific general theory of Library Science, one based upon ontology, that could depict, define, predict, and explain the phenomena of Library Science, especially as they occur through organizational librarianship occurring within organizations dedicated to librarianship, known as libraries. This ontology and its derived direction toward general theory encompasses several sets of Library Science phenomena: such organizational librarianship, especially its central phenomena; phenomena supporting and governing organizational librarianship’s central phenomena; as well as contextual phenomena generating and affected by organizational librarianship. The ontology and derived theoretical direction also identify the relationships governing these phenomena. These include causal relationships, ones arising from the dynamics among Library Science’s phenomena, and ones inherent to the phenomena’s ontology.
William B. Edgar (Tue,) studied this question.