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Purpose: The research was undertaken to explore the role of the UK public library as a public sphere and the ways in which this role relates to the epistemic, community and political functions of public libraries. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal, multi-location focus group approach was developed and deployed in three phases. Data were collected from 53 active public library users in a total of 24 focus groups conducted in eight different public library services in England and Scotland in 2015–2016 (Phase 1), 2016–17 (Phase 2) and 2017–18 (Phase 3). Data collected were transcribed and coded using NVivo 10- for thematic analysis. Findings: The public library's role as public sphere aligns closely with its epistemic functions, adding a dimension to information services provision beyond access to "traditional" print and online sources. New information and knowledge emerge through the person-to-person interactions in public library space. Through such exchanges, the community function of public libraries is made evident, notably as a platform for citizens to participate actively in society, including its democratic processes. Originality/value: Unlike much extant prior work on public library value dominated with accounts of societal and/or economic impact, w hich is frequently based on the analysis of quantitative data, here the fundamental epistemic value of public library services is demonstrated. This research also adds an important perspective to the domain of Information Society Studies where, to date, the place of the public library as public sphere has been treated as peripheral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Drawing on the survey of Spanish-speaking immigrant and migrant readers in Canada and the US, this study pursues three goals: (1) examine the image of the library held by these readers and trace the change of this image after the international migration; (2) use the study findings to revise and update the currently existing typologies of the image of the library; and (3) understand ethical and effective research practices in the studies of immigrant/migrant communities whereby researchers are external to communities in question. Design/methodology/approach: The data about immigrant/migrant readers were collected through a self-administered survey questionnaire that was available both in print and electronically, both in Spanish and English. The data analysis was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology, as explicated in the article. Theoretical examination of the image of the library relied on the earlier typology developed by V. Stelmakh. Findings: The study elucidates perceptions of libraries and librarians in both North America and countries of origin held by Spanish-speaking immigrant/migrant readers, and highlights changes that occur in the image of the library as readers move across geographic borders. Building on the empirical data, the article develops a new typology of the image of the library. It also offers insight into ethical and effective ways of engaging with immigrant communities that should be upheld by researchers from outside the communities in question. Originality/value: It is the first known study that systematically traces the changes in the image of the library which occur alongside geographic and sociocultural migrations. It is also the first known study that focuses specifically on readers rather than library users in general. The new typology consists of four different elements – the cultural image; the functional image; the humanistic image; and the ideological image of the library – and is accompanied by detailed definitions of each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a more available technology including in public spaces like libraries. The value and role of VR as a tool for learning and social engagement are unclear. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which library patrons and librarians perceive VR and experience VR through library drop-in programs. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on research conducted in seven Washington State Libraries where VR was adopted for drop-in programming for the first time. Data was collected between March and June 2018 and involved interviews with librarians and patrons, a patron user experience survey, and observational field notes from researchers on site during library programs. Findings: Findings are presented in relation to user perceptions of VR compared to their actual VR experiences, and in relation to informal learning and social engagements. The authors frame the analysis and discussion in relation to sociotechnical imaginaries – culturally situated ideas about the relationship between society and technology, and considering the larger cultural landscape that informs collective views about the present and future. Social implications: The paper discusses pending and potential inequalities related to gender, race and class in conversation with technology industry and VR. Issues discussed include unequal access to technology in public libraries and representation of minoritized groups in VR. Originality/value: This work takes a critical perspective considering the inequities in relation to mainstreaming VR through public spaces like libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the implementation of self-service at public libraries from the perspective of their users. The implementation of self-service is related to a diverse societal context including, for example, an overall digitalisation, budget constraints and political expectations on public libraries to contribute to marketing the local community.Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with users and observations have been undertaken at self-service libraries in the south of Sweden. The material is analysed by means of a theoretical framework consisting of previous critical LIS-research, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Habermas’ theory of the colonisation of the life world.Findings The implementation of self-service is affecting the users’ library practices as well as their expectations on the library. These expectations are shaped by various and sometimes competing discourses.Social implications To support public libraries’ role as democratic, public spheres, the complexity of the users’ understandings should be taken into consideration when implementing self-service.Originality/value The differing expectations articulated by the users, and the various discourses they can be related to, implicate a hegemonic struggle, corresponding to a changing view on public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the perceived benefits of public libraries between five culturally different countries: Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, South Korea and the USA. Design/methodology/approach – The data were based on representative samples of Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Korean and American adult library users. In Finland a mail survey was used and in other countries web surveys were used for data collection. The distribution of the proportion of those benefiting from the library in various areas of life at least sometimes was compared across countries. The pattern of benefits was compared across countries by forming four outcome indexes from the 19 benefit areas. The differences in the outcomes between the countries were explained by demographics and library use variables. Findings – The intensity of perceived benefits differ considerably, with the Finns and Americans reporting a higher level of benefits than the South Koreans, who in turn derive more profit than the Norwegians and the Dutch. The large difference in library supply between Finland and other countries may explain the differences in the perceived benefits in part of other countries but the USA. Research limitations/implications – The study covered only some socio-economic and library usage factors as independent variables explaining the variation of benefit patterns. A more thorough analysis of library supply between the countries may explain some differences in perceived benefits. Practical implications – The policy implications of these findings are discussed. Originality/value – This is the first across-country study comparing and explaining the patterns of perceived benefits between culturally different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate tool lending library patrons’ perception of their tool borrowing, in order to explore the role of a public lending service in the context of their lives. It addresses the research question, why do patrons borrow tools from the library? Design/methodology/approach – A case study was conducted, consisting of semi-structured interviews with patrons of a tool lending library. Led by a phenomenographic approach, the interviews focused on participants’ recounted experiences. Transcripts were structured into major categories and underlying themes. Findings were discussed from a perspective taking departure in Wiegand’s notion of “the library in the life of the user,” and summarized with regards to sustainable community development. Findings – Participants are found to talk about their tool borrowing from two main viewpoints. First, reasons for making the decision. This involves weighing practical considerations, e.g., cost, storage, access, and frequency of use. It also includes ideological motivations, and sympathy with the concept. Second, effects of their borrowing, interpreted as how it enables them. This enablement includes inspiration, learning, support to self-employment, and strengthening of community. Patrons focus on local aspects of social and economic development, rather than global or environmental motivations. Research limitations/implications – A single and in part unique setting was studied. The findings provide foundation for a developed discussion on the societal role of public libraries providing “non-traditional” materials such as tools, with particular regards to community settings and sustainability. Originality/value – Addresses knowledge gaps on borrowing and tool lending libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Considering the perceived significance of librarians and information experts as professional information seekers and information seeking educators and of the institutional setting of information work, very little is known about the information practices of librarians and information professionals, their contexts and implications for libraries and their users. The aim of this study is to explore the information interactions of library professionals within and in relation to the context of the setting of the library. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on a qualitative case study of a large North European city library. Material was collected using information seeking diaries, interviews and ethnographic observation in the library space. Findings – The information practices of librarians are contextual to the setting of the library within which the meeting of the assumptions of library users, of the use of that particular system plays a significant role. The systemic interplay of librarians, library users and other parts of the system constrains the breadth of the available information at libraries, but at the same time, keeping to a particular set of shared norms and practices of library use also facilitates the use of the system. Research limitations/implications – The generalisability of the findings is limited by the fact that they are based on an individual case study. Practical implications – The systemic nature of library and its reproduction in a process of structuration underlines the need to develop information services in libraries from a holistic perspective that takes into account the practical implications of the shared norms and assumptions of how a library should work. Originality/value – There is little earlier research on the information practices of library and information professionals, particularly with specific reference to its implications for libraries and their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Lending novels is the major service provided by public libraries. The efforts in developing search systems have been focused on retrieving non-fiction. There is a need for designing systems to support fiction searching in libraries. The aim of this study is to analyze readers' methods of accessing fiction in a public library for informing the design of fiction search systems. This study seeks to find out which attributes of books readers perceive as indicators of a good novel, and what kind of tactics they use for finding these good novels in the public library. Design/methodology/approach – The authors observed 16 adult library users by semi-structured interviews eliciting information about their literary competence, what characterizes a good novel and how they accessed and identified good novels in the library. Findings – Based on the data this paper developed a tentative reader typology, which differentiated the attributes of good novels and major tactics for accessing them. Practical implications – The typology was used for inferring user models and design ideas for systems supporting fiction searching. Originality/value – This is the first empirical study to inform how readers' literary competence is associated with the tactics used and indicators recognized in books for finding and selecting good novels to borrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of French School Regulation theory for questions of relevance to researchers and practitioners working in the field of information policy in general and public librarianship in particular. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is divided into two parts. Part one outlines Regulation theory's twin analytic tools of Fordism and post-Fordism and its value for questions about the evolution of the public library. Part two provides an example of the approach's explanatory potential when applied to a series of public library planning documents produced by the Government of Ontario, Canada from the 1950s. Findings – An interpretation of the evolution of the identity of the library user from patron to customer to information producer-consumer is proposed at the intersection of the neoliberal state's austerity in social spending, the ubiquity of the new information and communication technologies, and fundamental changes in libraries as sites of waged-work. Research limitations/implications – The research facilitates the development of a political economy of the contemporary public library of potential value to the international public library community. Also, conceiving of the public library as first and foremost a site of productive work forces one to re-engage with the meaning of shifting relations between the library user and the institution on working conditions. Originality/value – The applicability of a relatively under-utilized theoretical framework is modelled that enables one to ask new questions of relevance to the field of library and information science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study seeks to examine, from the viewpoint of 12 adult fiction readers who are members of book clubs, how they go about selecting fiction books to borrow from the public library. Design/methodology/approach – Each participant took part in an individual, semi-structured, face-to-face interview. Using Williamson's Ecological Model of Information Seeking and Use as the conceptual framework, the study examined the role that fiction readers' "internal environments" and "external contexts" played in their book choices. Findings – The selection of fiction books at the public library occurred, to a large extent, outside it. Fiction books were selected as part of everyday life information seeking, influenced by study participants' personal characteristics and circumstances as well as sources from their everyday lives, which typically included family, friends, book club and the mass media. While the public library was the main means by which study participants obtained their fiction books, it was not the first source to which they turned for ideas on what to read. Originality/value – The study moves from a preoccupation of readers' actions at the public library to examine, more holistically, how everyday life information sources influence their choices of fiction books at the public library. It highlights the purposive and serendipitous dimensions of book selections and also underscores the importance of recognizing trust as a determining factor in book selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study aims to investigate the discourses surrounding the provision of internet access in Singapore through the public library system and to consider what the government, librarians and members of the public consider are the legitimate uses of the internet in Singapore's public libraries, how these compare with what the librarians see as their role in facilitating access and to what extent the internet as an educational tool features in public libraries according to users. Design/methodology/approach - A discourse analysis of public documents and semi-structured interviews with ten senior librarians, managers, and 40 members of the public were conducted. Observation was also conducted of library users and of their usage at the computer terminals in the library. Findings - Findings from the study throw up very different definitions of what constitutes learning through the internet within the context of a public library. This reinforces conclusions from previous studies that what is termed learning through the internet is variously constructed, and understood in multiple ways. This defies what is often presented of the internet as a technical quick fix of policy makers to help its population leap frog into the future. Research limitations/implications - While the study provided a glimpse into the discourse surrounding the internet in one country, similar work should be carried in more Asian countries to provide a more comprehensive survey of the region and compare this with findings conducted in an Occidental setting. Originality/value - The study provides an Asian perspective that complements findings on the various discourses that had surrounded internet technology in the USA and Europe. It also calls for a new spirit of awareness on the part of librarians to the views of library users with regard to internet access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual book issues from UK public libraries have been decreasing since 1980, due mainly to decreases in issues of adult fiction and, to a lesser extent, adult nonfiction. This paper describes an analysis of trends from 1980 to 1998 in annual book issues and selected factors that may have caused their decrease. Simple linear regressions were used to test predictors of issues over this period The factors studied were: decreased funding of public libraries and library book stocks; reductions in opening hours and numbers of public libraries; increased personal affluence and leisure opportunities; and increased book purchases by readers. Significant regression relationships were found between annual book issues and all the factors studied However, book issues showed the closest relationship to personal spending power, as measured by real households' disposable income, which explained over 96 per cent of the variation in issues. This compared with 92 per cent of the variation in issues being explained by the number of libraries open 45 hours per week, 80 per cent by real consumer spending on books and just 60 per cent by real book spend in public libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the consistency of fiction indexing of library professionals and patrons based on an empirical test. Indexing was carried out with a Finnish fictional thesaurus and all of the test persons indexed the same five novels. The consistency of indexing was determined to be low; several reasons are postulated. Also an algorithm for typified indexing of fiction is given as well as some suggestions for the development of fiction information retrieval systems and content representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]