Wake Up the Nation: Public Libraries, Policy Making, and Political Discourse

Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policy-making processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also incre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Library quarterly (Chicago) 2013-01, Vol.83 (1), p.61-72
Main Authors: Jaeger, Paul T., Bertot, John Carlo, Gorham, Ursula
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic libraries
Access to Information
Child Safety
Children
Copyrights
Discourse analysis
Exact sciences and technology
Federal Legislation
Finance
Information and communication sciences
Information Policy
Information Science
Information Science Education
Information science. Documentation
Information Technology
Intellectual Property
Internet
Law libraries
Librarians
Libraries
Library and information science. General aspects
Library operations
Library Research
Library Role
Library Science
Lobbying
Local government
National politics
Policy making
Political debate
Political discourse
Political processes
Political research
Politics
Public Libraries
Public policy
Public services
Sciences and techniques of general use
USA
USA PATRIOT Act 2001
Use and user studies. Information needs
Users (Information)
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Summary:Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policy-making processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also increasing limitations on their activities. Research in library and information science, however, has paid scant attention to these issues over time. If libraries are to be able to effectively advocate for the interests of their institutions, patrons, and communities, researchers need to more strongly engage problems of politics and policy making that impact libraries. With greater amounts of data and analysis in this area, libraries will be better situated to advocate for their needs in political and policy-making processes, as well as better able to articulate their positions to members of the public.
ISSN:0024-2519
1549-652X
DOI:10.1086/668582