Once more unto the breach : “Overcoming epistemology” and librarianship’s de facto Deweyan Pragmatism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore an approach to epistemology which allows a portion of library and information science (LIS) to coherently explain its social and intellectual contributions, and to overcome some of the problems of epistemology that LIS encounters. Design/methodology/approach Literature based conceptual analysis of the problems of epistemology in LIS and the productive approach of Deweyan Pragmatism. Findings LIS’ problems with epistemology come from a variety of sources: epistemology itself, the combining of librarianship with information science, and the search for a common grounding of the information professions, their tools and their institutions. No such theoretical foundation is possible, but Deweyan Pragmatism offers a sensible, practical explanation for the historical development and practices of librarianship. Originality/value Pragmatism has been deployed in portions of LIS, but the full implications and the “fit” of Dewey’s ideas for librarianship and its epistemology are productive explorations.