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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of public libraries as institutions underpinning a democratic public sphere as reasons legitimizing libraries compared to reasons that are more traditional and the actual use of libraries as public sphere arenas.Design/methodology/approachA survey of representative samples of the adult population in six countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland – was undertaken.FindingsLegitimations related to the libraries role as a meeting place and arena for public debate are ranked as the 3 least important out of 12 possible legitimations for upholding a public library service. Libraries are, however, used extensively by the users to access citizenship information and to participate in public sphere relevant meetings.Originality/valueFew studies have empirically analyzed the role of libraries in upholding a democratic and sustainable public sphere. This study contributes in filling that gap.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to treat disinformation and misinformation (intentionally deceptive and unintentionally inaccurate misleading information, respectively) as a socio-cultural technology-enabled epidemic in digital news, propagated via social media.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed disinformation and misinformation triangle is a conceptual model that identifies the three minimal causal factors occurring simultaneously to facilitate the spread of the epidemic at the societal level.FindingsFollowing the epidemiological disease triangle model, the three interacting causal factors are translated into the digital news context: the virulent pathogens are falsifications, clickbait, satirical “fakes” and other deceptive or misleading news content; the susceptible hosts are information-overloaded, time-pressed news readers lacking media literacy skills; and the conducive environments are polluted poorly regulated social media platforms that propagate and encourage the spread of various “fakes.”Originality/valueThe three types of interventions – automation, education and regulation – are proposed as a set of holistic measures to reveal, and potentially control, predict and prevent further proliferation of the epidemic. Partial automated solutions with natural language processing, machine learning and various automated detection techniques are currently available, as exemplified here briefly. Automated solutions assist (but not replace) human judgments about whether news is truthful and credible. Information literacy efforts require further in-depth understanding of the phenomenon and interdisciplinary collaboration outside of the traditional library and information science, incorporating media studies, journalism, interpersonal psychology and communication perspectives.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to comprehensively describe the legitimacy of the public library in the 21st century.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved a comprehensive literature review using the Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) database with keywords “Library” and “Legitimacy”, combined with citation searches and additional collections. In total, we analysed 159 research articles primarily from the 21st century, with some comparative analysis of pre-2,000 works. The final phase of the research investigated libraries’ legitimisation efforts across various dimensions, examining how they employ rhetoric and theories to maintain legitimacy amidst challenging circumstances.FindingsThrough this research process, five dimensions of public library legitimacy emerged; (1) Democracy, (2) Culture and History, (3) Communication and Education, (4) Economy and (5) Librarianship, with the most diverse literature being related to democracy, and its subsections intellectual freedom, neutrality, the public sphere, social justice and social capital.Originality/valueThe outcome of our results indicates that the evolving legitimacy of the public library in the 21st century has become multifaceted, compared to the elements of legitimacy in the 20th century. Contemporary public libraries can continue to utilise the dimensions of legitimacy identified in this study and can reconstruct their legitimacy accordingly.

PurposeAs social infrastructures, public libraries are increasingly recognised as providing more than access to books and information; librarians’ work is importantly centred around practices of care. However, the ways in which they provide care is poorly researched, let alone conceptualised. This paper explores how this important part of librarians’ daily work is practiced through the lens of infrastructuring.Design/methodology/approachThe paper first theoretically discusses the concepts of social infrastructuring, care and tinkering. Then, it turns to ethnographic research conducted in the public library networks of three European cities: Vienna (Austria), Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Malmö (Sweden). The paper comprises empirical materials from all three countries and unpacks 16 librarians’ daily working routines of care through participant observations.FindingsThe empirical analysis resulted in three modes of social infrastructuring in public libraries: (1) maintaining, (2) building connections and (3) drawing boundaries. Practices of care are prominent in each of these infrastructuring modes: librarians infrastructure the library with and via their care practices. Whilst care practices are difficult to quantify and verbalise, they are valuable for library patrons. By using the concept of tinkering, the article conceptualises librarians’ infrastructuring enactments as crucial community-building aspects of libraries.Originality/valueBy focusing on the enactment of social infrastructuring, the paper goes beyond a descriptive approach to understanding public libraries as important social infrastructures. Rather, the paper unpacks how libraries come into being as infrastructuring agencies by highlighting what librarians do and say. Our international study articulates the importance of care practices in public libraries across different national contexts.

PurposeThis article explores the ranging notions of a public library for all and the related conflicts on for all and the principle of neutrality in Norway and Denmark.Design/methodology/approachA document study of four profession magazines in a ten-year period is conducted, focusing on the problematizations of for all using the WPR approach: What’s the Problem Represented to be? Theories on public sphere and democracy frequently applied in Library and Information Science (LIS) are discussed in relation to the ranging notions.FindingsThe analysis shows that although for all is used as an argument by both advocates and opponents of the principle of neutrality, there are different notions of who constitutes for all. In total, five ranging notions of for all are identified and presented in a typology, to serve as a framework to understand the conflicts concerning neutrality and the public library for all.Originality/valueThe typology offers a new conceptual framework for understanding the nature of the conflicts and why they appear. The analysis indicates a need to discuss the use of for all in order to engage in more nuanced discussions of the democratic role of the public library.

PurposeThis article explores how public librarians understand and perform the democratic mission of public libraries in times of political and social turbulence and critically discusses the idea of public libraries as meeting places.Design/methodology/approachFive group interviews conducted with public librarians in southern Sweden are analyzed using a typology of four perspectives on democracy.Findings Two perspectives on democracy are commonly represented: social-liberal democracy, focusing on libraries as promoters of equality and deliberative democracy, focusing on the library as a place for rational deliberation. Two professional dilemmas in particular present challenges to librarians: how to handle undemocratic voices and how to be a library for all.Originality/valueThe analysis points to a need for rethinking the idea of the meeting place and offers a rare example of an empirically based argument for the benefits of plural agonistics for analyzing and strengthening the democratic role of public libraries.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the shaping of public libraries as an infrastructure for a sustainable public sphere through a comprehensive literature review.Design/methodology/approachIn order to capture the whole picture of this research field, we utilize comprehensive review methodology. The major research questions are: first, to what extent have research topics regarding libraries as public sphere institutions expanded and diversified? Which theoretical perspectives inform research? Second, which challenges and topics does the research focus upon, such as: social inclusion and equal access to information; digital inequalities; censorship and freedom of expression; and access to places and spaces with a democratic potential and the role of libraries in that respect? Third, what influence has social media exerted on libraries in the context of the expanding digital world?FindingsThe authors identified mainly four themes regarding the public library and public sphere, such as: the importance of public libraries by using Habermas’s theory; the function of meeting places within the public library and setting those places in the center of the library in order to enhance and encourage democracy; the relationship between social inclusion and public libraries and its functions in current society such as diminishing the digital divide; and the emerging electronic resources and arena of SNS in public libraries and utilizing them to reach citizens.Originality/valueCapturing the recent history of this research field through comprehensive review is valuable.

The purpose of this article is to examine how Swedish national library policy has evolved and been influenced by ideas associated with community librarianship. Additionally, the collaboration between public libraries and the movement-based popular education, which shares common roots with public libraries and emphasizes community building, is explored. The article is structured around two research questions, addressed through a qualitatively oriented document study of key documents in national library policy. The state initiative \"Strengthened Libraries\" is also analyzed. The investigation reveals that Swedish library policy has been significantly influenced by community librarianship in recent years, expressing several of its central ideas, such as community building, diversification of activities, and the library's role as a place. It also indicates that public libraries have some collaboration with movement-based popular education but that libraries' interest in expanding this collaboration appears limited. No previous research has examined the impact of community librarianship on Swedish library policy. The relationship between public libraries and movement-based popular education in study associations is also an underexplored area. This study provides some insight into the current situation, but further research is needed.

Analyses the phenomenon of smart libraries, systems of library and information services developed to support research and training activity which began in the 2000s, alongside the development of computer technology, digital storage the internet and human-computer interactions. Describes the need to introduce innovative library and information services at universities through users’ personal accounts. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.