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Library cards as the building blocks of social capital

By George Seymour - posted Wednesday, 19 January 2011


As a form of protest it was as unique as it was striking. Faced with the threat of the closure of their public library, the people of Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire UK withdrew the maximum allowance of 15 books. By January 14, 2011, within a week of the start of the campaign, all 16,000 of the library’s books were withdrawn.

The empty shelves foreshadow the void that would be left in the community were the library to close.

Emily Malleson from the Friends of Stony Stratford Library said they were amazed at how everyone in the town had pulled together. However, it shouldn’t be surprising that such a co-ordinated response to a threat should come from a community of people who value and share a public library.

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In seeking to foster community development and build resilience, local governments should take the time to focus on a significant asset already in their hands. An asset capable of being at the core of social inclusion and community development.

Public libraries can be what Hugh Mackay has described as the new village green in our communities. They are community hubs, which provide a focal point accessed by the community for a range of purposes. They are free and safe public places staffed by professionals.

Public libraries are too often undervalued and underutilised as social infrastructure. In devising community development strategies, governments and NGOs should place an emphasis on them as public places where people interact, learn, share and grow.

There are almost 1,500 public libraries across Australia and they are attended more frequently and by more people than any other cultural and sporting venue. Over 68 per cent of these libraries are open for more than 30 hours a week, more than 32 per cent are open more than 45 hours per week.

The proportion of the population that is a library member has fallen from 49 per cent in 2004-2005 to 46 per cent in 2008-2009. Despite the decline, this high level of voluntary membership would be hard to find in any other institution.

Properly resourced libraries will evolve to meet community expectations and desires. Unsurprisingly, the growth area in library use has been internet use. The total number of public access terminals is rapidly increasing. The latest number of 8,652 for 2008-2009 was an increase from 7,821 in the previous year. 92 per cent of service points have internet terminals.

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Through its public libraries, local government is the largest educational provider in Australia. They have become the university of lifelong learning. This is achieved on a total expenditure on public library services per capita of $40.34, of which $5.36 is for new materials.

The austerity measures which jeopardise the Stony Stratford Library threaten similar libraries and communities across the UK. We can expect to see many more protests and increased debate about the value of libraries in the coming months as local governments there struggle to come to terms with the massive cuts in funding from Tory/Liberal Democrats coalition government.
 
Libraries in Australia don’t presently face the threat of their UK counterparts, indeed funding has increased steadily over the past five years. However, while half the population does not hold a library card there is a need for libraries to better engage with the community and demonstrate their value. This is the aim of the annual Library Lovers Day organised by the Australian Library and Information Association for Valentines Day, February 14.

Social capital refers to the networks and relationships of trust and reciprocity that bind society together. The decline in social capital in American society is well documented in Robert Putnam’s seminal work Bowling Alone, similarly Andrew Leigh has recently documented the decline in Australia in Disconnected.

It is no longer likely that neighbours will attend the same workplace and attendance at club meetings and organised sport is diminishing. In the context of declining participation and engagement, an established institution capable of changing with community needs is vital. Libraries already exist in our communities, with more than one per every 15,000 Australians. They must form part of any resurgence in social capital.

Public libraries can facilitate lifelong learning; providing continuing learning in a context that enhances connections within the community and encouraging civic virtue. They provide meeting rooms for groups, raise literacy levels, provide access to computers and facilitate opportunities for discussion and debate. In most communities they are a valuable and rare, neutral, communal space.

Public spaces such as libraries have never been more needed. Unlike commercialised or otherwise restrictive sites, they are places that promote social equality by levelling the status of those present. Highly frequented public spaces have traditionally been a key element of neighbourhoods. However, as Professor Ray Oldenburg notes (PDF 334KB), “Most residential areas built since World War II have been designed to protect people from community rather than connect them to it. Virtually all means of meeting and getting to know one’s neighbours have been eliminated. An electronically-operated garage door out front and a privacy fence out back afford near-total protection from those who, in former days, would have been neighbours.”

The concept of the “third place” was developed by Oldenburg to refer to the social surroundings separate from the two usual environments of home and the workplace. He states that “what suburbia cries for are the means for people to gather easily, inexpensively, regularly, and pleasurably - a ‘place on the corner,’ real life alternatives to television, easy escapes from the cabin fever of marriage and family life that do not necessitate getting into an automobile.”

Public libraries can be this third place and so much more.

Public libraries represent, encourage and facilitate civic virtue. Ultimately their role is a highly ambitious one. Opening Manchester’s first public library in 1852, two years after the Public Libraries Act was introduced to “raise educational standards throughout society”, Charles Dickens described libraries as a “source of pleasure and improvements in the cottages, the garrets and the ghettos of the poorest of our people”.

Great Expectations and Bleak House are out on loan now, but the 6,000 card carrying members of the Stony Stratford public library are well aware of pleasures and improvements that come from this vital institution. It is a community institution that has brought them together and is worth saving.

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About the Author

George Seymour is a solicitor and local government councillor. He is the President of Youthcare Hervey Bay, a homeless shelter providing support to young people on the Fraser Coast, Queensland.

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