Purpose

This article addresses a recent debate in this journal between Buschman and Widdersheim and Koizumi on public libraries and public sphere theory in library and information science (LIS). The article moves beyond the debate as the debate has been too focused on the theories of Jürgen Habermas. In order to really understand the democratic mission of public libraries and how it is related to the public sphere, the author argues that LIS scholars need to look beyond Habermas' theories of the public sphere.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a theoretical article that discusses different theories of the public sphere, and how they have been and can be applied in library and information science.

Findings

The author finds that a main disagreement between Buschman and Widdersheim and Koizumi is whether one can use the concept of a public sphere without doing it in a “traditional” Habermasian way. The answers put forward in this article, is that we can and should look beyond Habermas' work when seeking to understand the role of public libraries as public spheres.

Originality/value

The article puts forward theories that are not commonly used in LIS, and advocates for broadening the theoretical scope of LIS scholars studying the relations between public libraries and public spheres.

中文翻译：

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公共领域与哈贝马斯：对公共图书馆研究理论现状的反思

目的

本文讨论了Buschman与Widdersheim与Koizumi之间在该期刊上有关公共图书馆和图书馆与信息科学（LIS）中的公共领域理论的最新辩论。由于辩论过于关注于尔根·哈贝马斯的理论，因此本文超出了辩论范围。为了真正理解公共图书馆的民主使命及其与公共领域的关系，作者认为LIS学者需要超越哈贝马斯的公共领域理论。

设计/方法/方法

这是一篇理论文章，讨论了公共领域的不同理论，以及它们在图书馆和信息科学中的应用以及如何应用。

发现

作者发现，布希曼与维德斯海姆和小泉之间的主要分歧在于，是否可以使用公共领域的概念而不必以“传统的”哈贝马斯主义方式来做。本文提出的答案是，当我们试图了解公共图书馆作为公共领域的作用时，我们可以而且应该超越哈贝马斯的著作。

创意/价值

文章提出了LIS不常用的理论，主张扩大LIS学者研究公共图书馆与公共领域之间关系的理论范围。