Public Libraries and their National Policies: International Case Studies

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Introduction

Abstract:

Governments have understood the educational benefits of public libraries for quite a while, and have created policies to foster their growth. Examples are given from Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others. International bodies have also issued guidelines on standards and best practices for national public library policies. The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have both issued public library policy manifestos. At the end of the introduction the scope and goals of this book are discussed.

Key words

international library organizations

international library standards

Public libraries have long been recognized by national governments as important centers of popular education and culture. At various places and various times throughout history, public libraries have been used to educate, indoctrinate, homogenize, or empower their patrons. The ability of public libraries to serve as centers of education (or miseducation) has been mobilized by government in a myriad of ways. To understand a particular nation’s attitude toward public libraries, and also towards the importance of education among its own citizens, it is often very useful to look closely at the history of that nation’s public library policy.

For example, in pre-revolution Russia, public libraries were seen as cultural conduits through which the lower classes could be indoctrinated with the values of the upper classes. They were, as Stuart (1998) puts it, ‘a means to an end’. Lenin (whose wife was a librarian by trade) brought this attitude into the Soviet era, when libraries were seen as a means of creating a society full of good Marxist/Leninist citizens. They were, in the minds of the nation’s leaders, integral to the creation of the socialist state because they were integral to the education of the public on the subject of socialist theory (Knutson, 2007).

More recently, China has used public libraries to bring rural, isolated regions into the cultural fold. Motuo, situated in an isolated valley in Tibet, is the only county in all of China without roads built specifically for cars. When the Chinese Government decided to build a public library in Motuo in 2006, it took 300 porters four days to carry the 16,000 lbs of materials into the village. When the library opened, the village went from having 1,000 books scattered about in government offices and schools, to having 17,000 books collected in what became the Sun Yat-sen Library. Motuo now has 1.7 books per capita (Zhaochun and Qunqing, 2008).

Attempts to use public libraries to guide the greater culture of a nation are by no means restricted to authoritarian or Communist countries. The United Kingdom’s first attempts to create public library legislation were brought about, tellingly, by the ‘Select Committee on Inquiry into Drunkenness’ in 1834. In the early twentieth century, United Kingdom libraries were seen as moralizing forces that existed to, among other goals, correct the ‘wrong’ idea of socialism. More broadly, they were seen as ‘the best counter-attractions to the vicious influences of the public house and the street corner’ (Black, 2005). Public libraries were seen as advancing the cause of civilization, and rolling back the advance of immorality.

In early America, public libraries were often used to prepare the people for statehood by Americanizing them. Public libraries in Hawai’i were seen as alternatives to the prevailing drinking culture. The first public library was called ‘The Temperance Reading Room’ and even though fully half the population of Hawai’i at the time was Asian or of Asian descent, the library stocked books only in English (Tachihata, 1991). Even today, although they are surely more sensitive to the needs of non-Western library users, American public libraries are seen as institutions that make possible effective democracy by making available the information one needs to be an informed voter.

In late nineteenth century Utah, Mormon leader Brigham Young mandated that every state have a library containing volumes on topics useful to pioneer life, such as architecture and gardening. No novels were permitted, as it was thought they might cause disillusionment among young men and women. In other words, these libraries existed specifically to maintain the Mormon way of life and social order. As the rise of the railroad led to more non-Mormons arriving in Utah, these libraries gradually disappeared (mostly due to lack of funds) and were replaced by secular libraries hostile to the Mormon practice of polygamy, which had been a major barrier to statehood (Stauffer, 2005).

Whether Tibetan villagers truly desired the cultural ‘benefits’ of a Chinese library, or whether Russian peasants truly benefited from the tightly controlled Soviet public library system, is debatable. What is not debatable is that national public library policies can have a huge impact on the way that libraries operate and the goals they set out to accomplish. This book aims to explore the many different policy models that nations use (or fail to use) to set up their public libraries, and the effects that those policies have on public libraries as nationwide institutions.

At the international level, there are several examples of recommendations and best practices for the formulation of a national library policy. The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) along with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are the two most prominent international organizations dealing with libraries. They make the basic recommendation that all public libraries be ‘based on legislation.’ They point out that legislation can be basic, simply allowing local units of government to establish libraries at their own discretion, or it can be extensive, going so far as to set out goals and standards for the nation’s libraries. While allowing that countries may see fit to administer public libraries at various levels of government, ranging from local to national, the two bodies also recommend that public libraries be funded by the appropriate level of government to the fullest extent possible (Gil et al., 2001). IFLA/UNESCO also points out that many nations are addressing public libraries as they come up with national information policies.

One point that IFLA/UNESCO recommends for all public libraries, regardless of size or place in the government structure, is that the library be governed by a body made up of members of the local community that it serves. This body should be open and transparent, operate according to a published agenda, and allow the public to take part in the development of the library (Gil et al., 2001). In other words, libraries should be developed and governed at the community level, even as national governments are encouraging their growth through public library or information policy.

Regional library organizations have created guidelines and standards that are tailored to regional needs. The Council of Europe and the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) have created a set of ‘Guidelines on Library Legislation and Policy in Europe’ that are salient to the specific European environment. These include guidelines on how libraries should be legislated (similar to those of the IFLA), principles for collection development, and the goals toward which the authors of library and information policies should strive (Council of Europe/EBLIDA, 2000). The European Parliament and the European Commission created their own sets of guidelines around the same time. These efforts at the international level amount to an attempt to even out the sometimes ‘wide discrepancies’ between levels of library service in various European countries. In 2000, around the time the various European guidelines were being written, library expenditure ranged from 89 euros per capita in Denmark to 0.9 euro per capita in Bulgaria. Even among countries that are similar, library service can be markedly different. In 1998, Estonia spent 17.7 percent of its national expenditure on libraries. In 1997, Latvia had spent just 7 percent (Vitiello,