Agricultural Biographics v. Agricultural Biographistics: Concepts, Resources of Information, and Reflexive Potential

Abstract

The authors of the article explore the concepts ‘agricultural biographics’ and ‘agricultural biographistics’, proposing an interpretation of the terms. ‘Agricultural biographistics’ is defined as a full palette of portraits of agricultural scientists, sectoral bibliographical and biobibliographical reference publications, and the creation of electronic resources of biographical information about eminent figures in the field of agriculture. ‘Agricultural biographics’ is a distinct branch of historiography focusing on biographical research about agricultural scientists, and the theoretical and methodological foundations of biographical research of agricultural scientists. The article analyses the achievements in scientific bibliographical research of the Department of Biographistics at the Institute of History of Agrarian Science, Education and Technology of the National Scientific Agricultural Library of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine (NSAL NAAS). The authors argue that much of specifically historical research exists alongside inadequate theoretical studies on its foundations, which, accordingly, calls for the development of some aspects of agricultural biographistics. The article also outlines the theoretical and methodological visions in the biographies of agricultural scholars, considering also the architectonics of the publications, the types/models of biographies, and methodological approaches.