Political discourse: Do public libraries serve as a fertile ground?

Highlights

• Public libraries' role in community engagement for political discourse is an interesting and increasingly important topic.

• Multi-perspective research is suited to obtain rich insights on the role of public libraries' in political discourse.

• Library location and services require planning to better serve the community for their involvement in political discourse.

Abstract

Libraries in general, and public libraries specifically, are social institutions. It is their role and function to educate, inculcate values and provide recreational opportunities to the community. The success of a democratic political system depends on community involvement in decision making. The role of public libraries in political discourse was assessed with three approaches. Firstly, the geographical characteristics of public library communities were explored using Geographical Information System (GIS) methods. Secondly, the resources, services and activities of public libraries were identified. Thirdly, community perspectives were explored using the five aspects of the “Spectrum of Public Participation” of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). The results from all three approaches indicate that the public libraries of Islamabad do not facilitate opportunities for the community to be consulted, empowered or involved in political discourse. Analysis of GIS characteristics, library services and community perspectives suggests that improvements in planning and commitment (especially infrastructure, budget and human resources) would enable public libraries to increase opportunities for Islamabad communities to engage in political discourse.

Introduction

Public libraries are public (Buschman, 2003, Buschman, 2009, Buschman, 2012) social and community institutions (Johnson, 2012; Sigler et al., 2011; Taylor, Jaeger, McDermott, Kodama, & Bertot, 2012). The role of these institutions is to serve as a bridge between government and citizens. The American Library Association (ALA) explained this role in a democratic country as a two-way process for development. On one hand, the government should have the commitment to inform the public through public libraries. In this role, public libraries, along with providing information about the economic development of the country, educate and enlighten the community through wide range of knowledge resources. On the other hand, community engagement through public libraries should serve as a baseline in political discourse for policy making (American Library Association, 1995).

Jaeger, Bertot, and Gorham (2013) in their thought-provoking paper, “Wake up the Nation: Public Libraries, Policy Making, and Political Discourse” argued that the first role of public libraries to serve the community is a well addressed area in research while the second role is not focused on either by the researchers or practitioners. They stated that public library practitioners in general and library scholars particularly are unaware of the important connection between libraries, policies and politics. It is evident that scholarly and professional literature widely focuses on public library services and meeting user needs. However, the focus on community engagement for politics and policy making that is far more important for the healthy democratic society, is neglected in research and practice (Buschman, 2003, Buschman, 2009, Buschman, 2012; Jaeger, Bertot, & Gorham, 2013). Buschman (2003) also made a stern statement that “without a public, democratic purpose for librarianship, there is no compelling reason/argument in the long run to continue libraries” (p.176). To cover this imperative, grave and gigantic gap in the literature, this study made an effort by covering public libraries through three lenses, i.e. geographical lens, library services lens and community perspective lens.

Public libraries are producing social capital by establishing relationships and trust, establishing the link between library resources and community, providing specialized help to patrons, and establishing the library as a physical, meeting and safe place (Johnson, 2007, Johnson, 2012). By producing social capital, public libraries promote healthy communities and involve them in political discourse for policy making (Hillenbrand, 2005; Johnson, 2012). Community involvement in policy making results in the economic development of the country (Buschman, 2017; Jaeger, Gorham, Bertot, & Sarin, 2013). To achieve this objective, it is imperative to involve community in political discourse through the public libraries' network. This will only be possible when public libraries actively perform their role. Public libraries fundamentally aim to provide services to the public with the goal to enhance public engagement and participation in the political discourse for policy making (Jaeger & Bertot, 2011). But this role of public libraries is not only neglected in the developing world but also in developed countries (Hillenbrand, 2005).

Internationally, public libraries are facing fundamental changes, due to information technology development and digitization, and increasing pressure in many countries to downsize the public sector, of which libraries today are an integrated part. In Pakistan, budget restrictions and a weak political stance causing concern for communities and politicians to oversee public services, are common. This creates a need for assessing public services projects and institutions and their long-term impact on society and the community. Public libraries are competing with other public services such as school, health, etc. for their share of scarce funding; it is important to document the value of public libraries for individuals and society at large. Therefore, assessing the role of public libraries for community engagement and participation in political discourse is crucial. In other words, is use of public libraries, associated with a high level of social capital, promoting community involvement in political discourse or is public library use the means to compensate for lack of resources for the community to involve in political discourse.

The value of this study is that it investigates the current situation of public libraries of the capital city of Pakistan through three complimentary lenses including, geographic situation, library services, and community engagement in political discourse through public libraries. The study also benefits future researchers by providing a different viewpoint of social capital produced by public libraries and their relationship with community involvement in political discourse. The study used IAP2 spectrum for measuring community involvement in political discourse, thus, making it possible to replicate this study in different contexts.