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The role and value of public libraries in the age of digital technologies

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Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
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The role and value of public libraries in the age of digital technologies
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DOI: 10.1177/0961000605057855

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 The role and value of
Svanhild Aabø is an Associate Professor at the
Library and Information Science Programme
of Oslo University College. Her teaching
topics are Information and Cultural Econ-
omics aand Library Management. She has
worked in both public and academic libraries
public libraries in the age
and publishing. Recently, she received a
doctoral degree in Media Science from the Uni-
versity of Oslo, based on her research project
of digital technologies
The Value of Public Libraries in Society,
funded by the Library Research Programme of SVANHILD AABØ
the Norwegian Research Council.
Discusses public libraries’ role and value in the age of digital technologies.
Reassessments of their role due to technological development and wide-
spread public use of the Internet are analysed. Central challenges of the
digital society, including an increased digital divide and a weakening of
local community identity, have resulted in lower social participation and
involvement in community issues. Previous research has demonstrated that
public libraries have a wide social impact on both individuals and local
communities. This article focuses on the special characteristics of public
libraries to assess their potentially enhanced role and value, as a public
room and social and physical meeting place in the digitised age. The article
identifies a need to strengthen the public libraries’ democratic role in the
information society by furthering social inclusiveness and citizenship.

KEYWORDS: digital society, challenges; public libraries’ democratic role;

public meeting place; role and value of public libraries; social inclusiveness

INTRODUCTION
In his work The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Manuel Castells
characterises the information technology revolution by its pervasiveness
throughout the whole realm of human activity. This does not imply, however,
that new social forms and processes emerge as a consequence of technological
change. ‘Technology does not determine society; it embodies it. But nor does
society determine technological innovation; it uses it’ (Castells, 2000: 5). To
recognise this dialectical interaction between society and technology seems
important when analysing the public library’s role and value.
From a practical viewpoint, two main characteristics of the age of digital
technologies are of special importance to this discussion: (1) the spread of
personal computers – making their use relatively easy and relatively cheap,
and (2) the development of the World Wide Web – making Internet use
intuitive and easy. In Norway and many Western economies, these two points
have been the dominant characteristics of digital technologies for the general
public from the mid 1990s onwards.1 In 2002, 70 percent of the Norwegian
Address: Faculty of Journalism, Library population between the ages of nine and 79 used a personal computer in an
and Information Science average week – either at home (56 percent), at work (38 percent) or at school
Postboks 4 (14 percent) (Statistics Norway, 2002).
St Olavs Plas In this article, the role and value of public libraries in the digital society
0130 Oslo will be explored, first by discussing whether their use is still relevant in the age
Norway of the Internet. Then, reassessments of public libraries’ role due to challenges
Tel: +47 2245 2654 in the age of digital technologies will be analysed. Central challenges of the
Fax: +47 2245 2605 digital society include an increased digital divide and a weakening of local
E-mail: svanhild.aabo@jbi.hio.no community identity, expressed by lower participation and involvement in
community issues. Special characteristics of public libraries will be analysed to

Copyright © 2005 Sage Publications

(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
Vol 37 (4): 205–211
[DOI: 10.1177/0961000605057855]
JLS
JOURNAL OF LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION SCIENCE, 37 (4) DECEMBER 2005 205
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Role and value of public libraries
assess their potentially enhanced role and value as a
public room and a social and physical meeting place in
the digitised age.
The role and value of public libraries can be viewed
from different perspectives. The starting point of this
article is their purpose and overall aim, expressed in
Library Acts and mission statements. From these, the
libraries define their role – that is, their function in society
(Webster, 1996). How the role is defined is decided by
choice of values, understood as values the libraries are
meant to uphold and further – namely cultural, edu-
cational and democratic values. The value of public
libraries, in the sense of how valuable (e.g. important and
significant) they are to citizens and communities and in
the sense of their monetary worth, is dependent upon
how well they perform their role, and how important this
role is seen to be in relation to other social values.
EFFECT OF INTERNET USE ON PUBLIC
LIBRARY USE
How has the public libraries’ role changed due to the
widespread use of the Internet? The question has been
posed: Is there a future for public libraries? Will society
still need them?
The effect of the Internet on the demand for public
library services and resources is discussed in the library
profession internationally and in the research literature.
An acclaimed American study investigated this issue
based on data from a representative population sample
(D’Elia et al., 2002). Areas in which libraries and the
Internet appeared to be competing and areas in which
they appeared to complement each other were identified.
An objective of this study was to gather information in
order to plan for necessary changes in the public library
service to meet changes in the demand from the general
public and identify new needs.
Results from the study, based on data gathered in
the year 2000, showed that 75 percent of the Internet
users were library users, too, and 60 percent of the library
users also used the Internet. The subgroup of respon-
dents, who were both Internet and library users, was of
special interest for exploring the effect of Internet use on
library use. The following results were based on this
subgroup. When asked to estimate their future frequency
of using the library, 10 percent estimated that they would
use the library more than now, while 2.5 percent antici-
pated that they would stop using the library.
The study concluded that Internet use exists as a
complement to and not a substitute for library use. Using
the Internet for a variety of purposes did not appear to
have affected the reasons why people use the library.
Neither did the recency, length, and frequency of Internet
use appear to have affected the frequency with which
people use the library. However, the study reports, the
Internet will probably have more effect on library use in
206 JOURNAL OF LIBRARIANSHIP AND INFORMATION SCIENCE, 37 (4) DECEMBER 2005
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the years to come, since it scored higher on 10 out of 16
service characteristics of importance for choosing either
the public library or the Internet.
The Internet was ranked higher on availability
(‘open’ around the clock), convenience (don’t need to go
out), the wide range of Internet resources, current update,
and the possibility of acting immediately on the infor-
mation found. In addition, the Internet was considered
more fun to use and surfing, especially, was considered
fascinating. The public library was ranked higher on
accuracy (information from the library is trusted to be
accurate), ease of use, free of charge, helpful assistance
from librarians and because privacy was protected.
The authors conclude that libraries may need to
more actively re-evaluate their mission to society and
their methods of providing information, and they may
need to change their mix of services (e.g. emphasising
roles as a lending library and provider of local com-
munity programming) and focus more on training, edu-
cation and guidance of ICT use for everyone and
especially for the ‘information have-nots’. The public
library as a public room and a physical place where
people meet face to face may also have more focus, it was
suggested.
Reassessment of the public library’s role in society
due to the challenges in the age of digitised technologies
has also been a topic for political authorities such as the
EU Commission and national ministries of culture. An
important outcome of this debate is the revision of
national Library Acts.
The revised Finnish Library Act, which came into
force in 1999, has been met with acclaim in the other
Scandinavian countries (Library Act, 1998). The aim of
the library activities in the Finnish Act is extended to
include the development of virtual and interactive
network services and their educational and cultural
content, as part of the civic information society. Emphasis
is on availability and quality. The public library’s objec-
tive is to ensure the population has equal opportunity to
access material recorded in all ways, from the traditional
to the post modern and for ‘personal cultivation, for
literary and cultural pursuits, for continuous develop-
ment of knowledge, personal skills and civic skills, for
internationalisation, and for lifelong learning’ (Library
Act, 1998: §2). In this compact way, the Finnish Library
Act widens the public libraries’ role to incorporate the
challenges and demands of the digitised age.
This Library Act can be viewed from three perspec-
tives, those of citizens, libraries and communities:
1. citizens – by demonstrating their fundamental, demo-
cratic right to have access to information, regardless
of media form, and by demonstrating the citizens’
opportunities for personal and civic development;
2. libraries – by demonstrating their role and tasks in
ensuring the citizens their rights;

3. communities – by the development of a civic infor-
mation society.
From the purpose described in Library Acts and
mission statements, libraries define and specify this role
and, to fulfil it, they have developed and continue to
develop different public library services and activities. A
characteristic of public libraries is that they provide a
very wide range of services and activities, directed
towards a diverse public and a variety of different popu-
lation groups. How these services and activities have
impact on the library user and the community is critical
and, ultimately, a test of how well libraries fulfil their role
– and how valuable they are. Identification of major
impacts is therefore central both for evaluation and
valuation of the libraries.
IMPACT OF PUBLIC LIBRARY USE
How public libraries make an impact on individuals and
communities has been explored extensively in the recent
literature of library and information science. The
Comedia group, a British research consultancy specialis-
ing in cultural and urban policy issues, published several
studies analysing the future of public libraries in the
1990s. Its starting point was a sense of urgency about the
prospects of public libraries, a feeling that they are seri-
ously threatened in this era of deregulation, local govern-
ment restructuring, commercialisation of information,
and growth of home-based leisure. The Comedia reports
explore what it is that makes public libraries special,
what constitutes the quality of ‘libraryness’. Greenhalgh
et al. (1993) identified five main areas of public policy, or
spheres of influence, where public libraries make an
impact: education, social policy, information, cultural
enrichment and economic development.
Some years later, when digital technologies were
more widespread, comprehensive literature reviews of
the social impact of public libraries were presented by the
British researchers Kerslake and Kinnel (1997) and by the
Australian researcher Debono (2002). Kerslake and Kinnel
understand the term ‘social impact’ in a very wide sense. It
is understood ‘[. . .] more discretely than meaning “having
an impact on society” and is instead used to indicate the
meaning of the public library to the communities in which
they work’ (Kerslake and Kinnel, 1998: 161).
Debono understands assessment of the social
impact of public libraries as a movement from measuring
outputs (such as figures of books borrowed or library
visits) towards investigation of the outcomes (that is,
consequences of use) of public library services. ‘It is the
relationship between the use of a service and the outcome
of that use that defines the impact of the service’, she
writes. ‘Outcomes based research brings to the fore the
impacts, the human experience of library use, and gives
value to these experiences’ (Debono, 2002: 80).
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SVANHILD AABØ
The concept of impact is elaborated upon by Brophy
(2002: 2). ‘Impact can be defined in different ways’, he
states, ‘but in the context of library services it may be
thought of as any effect of a service (or other “event”) on
an individual or group.’ Impact may be positive or
negative, intended or something different, change atti-
tudes or behaviours, be short- or long-term, critical or
trivial. A library service may result in different ‘levels’ of
impact on the user, from negative impact as dismissive-
ness or boredom, to no impact at all, or to positive impact
of increasing significance: raised awareness, being better
informed, having improved knowledge, a changed per-
ception, a changed world view and, ultimately, changed
action.
The term ‘social impact’ has only recently been used
to describe and conceptualise the role of public libraries.
Despite public libraries’ fundamental and wide-ranging
areas of engagement in the digital society, ranging from
economic to community issues, social impact is often
undervalued or overlooked in assessments of them
according to Kerslake and Kinnel (1997). In their litera-
ture review, they divide the social impact of public
libraries into three sections: (1) the impact on the com-
munity in which the library operates, (2) the impact on
skills, and (3) the economic impact.
1. Impact on the community is found to be:
● sustaining local identities and communities;
● supporting people whose main activities are out of
the labour market;
● fostering cultural enrichment and diversity;
● promoting a sense of social cohesion during wide-
spread demographic changes;
● proving information in times of crisis; and,
● facilitating the use of new information resources
(Kerslake and Kinnel, 1997: 8).
2. Public libraries’ impact on skills is demonstrated by
their work to support literacy and information com-
petence, lifelong learning, and a reading culture for
long-term benefits. The immediate effects of these
activities benefit the individuals concerned by
increased employment opportunities and improved
quality of life. The wider effects include benefits to the
society’s economic, political and social well-being:
● benefits to society’s economic well-being, because
individuals are more likely to be employed and pay
taxes;
● benefits to political well-being, because literate,
educated individuals and groups are more likely to
be able and to want to take part in democratic
activities, such as running in local elections, or
participating in local groups;
● benefits to social well-being, by offering indi-
viduals chances to work together, share resources
and develop a sense of local community (Kerslake
and Kinnel, 1997: 12).
207
Role and value of public libraries
3. In addition to impact on the community and impact
on skills, Kerslake and Kinnel show that the social
impact of public libraries also has an economic
impact. However, the authors observe, the economic
impact of public libraries is not well documented and
needs further investigation, but they indicate three
main areas in which public libraries have economic
impact by: (1) increasing and sustaining local prosper-
ity through the regeneration of town centres, (2) con-
fronting poverty both on an individual and
geographic level, and (3) building a bridge over the
divide between education and leisure (Kerslake and
Kinnel, 1997: 14–15).
Concluding their study, they point to two distinct
levels of the social impact of public libraries. The first is
the ‘[. . .] more immediate impact on the economy, the
level of skills in the labour market and society, and their
role in community development and sustenance. The
second level is the extension of social inclusiveness and
citizenship, which are cumulative results of these areas of
activity’ (p. 17).
SOCIAL INCLUSIVENESS AND
CITIZENSHIP AND THE ROLE OF
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
In the digital society, there are several problem areas that
can seriously hamper social inclusiveness and citizen-
ship. Here lie fundamental challenges for the information
and knowledge society. There is a fear of a development
that widens the digital divide and new social inequalities.
There is a fear of establishing the ‘2/3 society’, where the
majority of the population manages well and adopts
necessary information literacy skills, whilst a minority is
lagging behind and never will cross the digital gap and
the new social divides.
Social participation and social inclusion in the
information society presuppose information literacy and
access to information resources. The ability to access,
adapt and create new knowledge using information and
communication technology is critical to social inclusion
today (Warschauer, 2003: 9) and a vital prerequisite for
democratic participation. These points are stressed by
Putnam (2000), Warschauer and other social scientists.
Information competence is a core skill of the library pro-
fession – and public libraries aim to include promoting of
information literacy as a widening of their role as a
promoter of literacy in a wide sense.
The UK research project VITAL (the Value and
Impact of IT Access in Libraries) has developed a
methodology to gain insights into the value that users
place on in-library IT access and the impact on them of
that access (Eve and Brophy, 2001: iii). This project inves-
tigated end-user IT services including access to the
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Internet, World Wide Web, e-mail, word processing, etc.
The conclusion was that, overall, the provision of end-
user IT-based services in public libraries has a positive
impact both on the communities and the individuals by
supporting a range of activities ‘from formal study to job
seeking to building and maintaining social networks
using the Internet’ (Eve and Brophy, 2001: 39).
There are, however, other examples that show
public libraries’ shortcomings in this respect. A compre-
hensive study by UK researchers Muddiman et al. (2000)
investigated the capacity of public libraries to tackle
social exclusion. Social exclusion can be conceptualised
as the result for an individual of not being able to engage
in economic, social or political life – and there is a signifi-
cant overlap between social exclusion and poverty.
The widened digital divide between the information
have and have-nots illustrates how ‘[. . .] new forms of
exclusion are emerging and becoming sharpened within
the context of the “information” society’ (Muddiman et
al., 2000: 6). Public libraries have been identified as a
means of helping to narrow the digital divide but,
Muddiman et al. assert, to update their technological
base will not be enough. This view accords with the
stance of the American researcher Warschauer (2003). The
concept of a digital divide and its logical implications,
that social problems can be addressed through providing
computers and Internet accounts, is problematic. The dis-
cussion of the digital divide should thus be reoriented
from focusing on gaps to be overcome by provision of
technical equipment only, to one that focuses on issues of
social development. Muddiman et al. (2000) conclude
that to fulfil their potential and make a real impact on
social inclusion, public libraries must be proactive and
interventionist and target their services at excluded and
marginalised social groups and communities.
Participation and involvement in the community
are central issues for social inclusion. There is a wide-
spread concern, addressed in a European White Paper
that people are experiencing an increasing distrust in
political institutions and losing interest in them (Com-
mission of the European Communities, 2001). Partici-
pation and involvement is related to and dependent
upon citizenship. Citizenship implies a feeling of com-
munity with the polity in question, be it a municipality,
a region or a nation. Experiencing community, in turn, is
dependent upon a degree of shared identity, in other
words, of having something in common. A paradox of
today’s digital society where the possibilities to connect
with other people through the net is enormous, is that
this society at the same time also is characterised by
fragmentation causing reduced community involvement
and few common arenas that are capable of fostering
that degree of community.
Democracy presupposes meeting places where we
are confronted with other values and interests than our
own and accept them as legitimate. We need a kind of

meeting place where one can meet across different
cultures, interests, generations and social belonging.
Audunson (2005) calls such meeting places low intensive.
The public library, which is frequented by all groups in
the community, might have the potential for functioning
as such a cross-cultural, low-intensive meeting place
which democracy needs, he suggests.
Four barriers against community participation and
involvement are identified:
1. The absence of accessible arenas promoting com-
munication and a public sphere in the community
which is regarded as relevant and accessible for all
groups in the community.
2. The absence of accessible and relevant arenas capable
of promoting a minimum degree of identity across
cultural belongings and identities.
3. The absence of accessible arenas promoting social
cohesion and preventing fragmentation and indi-
vidualism.
4. The absence of accessible arenas capable of promoting
informational and communication skills – infor-
mation literacy – needed for community participation
and involvement.
An important question is whether or not public
libraries are capable of fulfilling a role of being one of
these much needed arenas.
The evaluations of public libraries’ social impact
indicate that they, to a certain degree, already act as one
such arena, shown in their impact on local communities
by promoting a sense of social cohesion, sustaining local
identities and communities, and by facilitating the use of
new information and communication technology. Studies
by Matarasso (1998) and by Linley and Usherwood (1998)
point in the same direction. They found evidence about
the role of public libraries and their impact on local com-
munities, including developing confidence in individuals
and communities, strengthening community empower-
ment and the feeling of community ownership.
There is, however, the possibility of playing a more
crucial role if public libraries develop their potential as
a community meeting place in the digital society.
Audunson and Bakken (2005) summarise three main
characteristics of the public library that have special
significance concerning the challenges confronting the
digitised society:
1. Public libraries are institutions based on literature and
culture as well as on information technology, expert in
information seeking and retrieval. There are not many
institutions with these twin roots.
2. Public libraries are institutions based in the munici-
palities and local communities of importance for
community identity and cohesion, as well as being
gateways to the virtual world, providing both
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SVANHILD AABØ
computers and assistance to use them in the search for
information and knowledge. In this way libraries
become bridges between the physical local com-
munity and virtual and global networks.
3. Public libraries are institutions involved in most of the
municipalities’ tasks towards the population, as a
complementary resource. Public libraries develop
services for elderly persons, for immigrants and ethnic
minorities, for pre-school children, lifelong learners,
persons with disabilities, etc. Also, when using the
library, the person is not a client, not a consumer – but
a citizen. There is a profound difference.
The fragmented digital society where social partici-
pation in general and political participation in particular
seems to be problematic needs this type of low-intensive
meeting places. The public library’s role as a meeting
place can be seen as a new dimension of its overall demo-
cratic role. If public libraries manage to utilise their
special characteristics of bringing together culture and
technology, the local and the virtual, different ethnical
and social groups, different generations and different
arenas of interest, and thus further develop their poten-
tial as a social meeting place – then their democratic role
in today’s society may be extended.
For public libraries to succeed in fulfilling this role
several factors must be satisfied, including:
1. the need to recognise and develop services and library
activities to fulfil it, in other words, a task for the
library profession;
2. the need to ensure sufficient economic funding, in
other words, a task for the authorities.
THE VALUE OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES
The value of public libraries is, in one way, dependent on
how well they perform their role, in other words, how
well public library services meet the needs of their com-
munities and how they and the impact they make are
valued by the citizens and the communities they serve.
The majority of empirical studies of the libraries’
social or overall impact referred to above have used
qualitative approaches, and qualitative methods are well
suited to identify different types of impact and to capture
the value-based qualities of public libraries. In addition,
however, there is a need for measurement of the value of
public libraries. There is a need for quantification of their
value in monetary terms, due to the heavy and continu-
ing economic pressure on public library budgets. By
applying quantitative methods developed in economics
one can estimate the monetary worth of public libraries.
For non-market methods developed in economics to be
useful with regard to public library valuation, however,
three conditions have been identified (Aabø and
Audunson, 2002). The economic value of Norwegian
209
Role and value of public libraries
public libraries has been recently estimated by research
using the contingent valuation method, which seems to
fulfil these conditions (Aabø, 2005).
Economic value is not synonymous with financial or
commercial value, although it is ultimately expressible in
terms of money, suggests David Throsby (2003: 279), who
specialises in the cultural economics research area.
Economic value comprises any direct use value of the
cultural good or service in question, plus whatever non-
market values it may give rise to. It is economic value in
this sense that the contingent valuation research project
seeks to measure.
The research (Aabø, 2005) attempted to estimate the
value of public libraries, demonstrating both their
instrumental and their democratic and cultural value. The
purpose was to provide a better understanding of the total
value of Norwegian public libraries, both their use and
non-use values, as viewed by the population. By surveying
a representative sample of citizens, including both library
users and non-users, and aggregating the individual pref-
erences to a social preference, an estimate was reached.
This aggregated estimate was defined as the social value of
public libraries, expressed in monetary terms in accordance
with use of the term in welfare economics. This social value
includes the social impact of public libraries in a wide
sense, as the individual citizen assesses it.
Note that this definition implies a limitation, since
the value is based upon citizens’ valuation only. Some
effects of the public library service are probably not
captured by the general public, for instance long-term
effects such as the library’s impact on community
development, cumulative results concerning social
inclusiveness and citizenship, and effects of literacy on
employment opportunities. The majority of respondents
in this Norwegian empirical study did value the social
and cultural aspects of the public library service. These
aspects have long-term effects and seem to constitute
about 35–40 percent of the stated total value, suggesting
that the general public considers long-term effects as well
as short-term effects. It is, however, unlikely that the
respondents are fully aware of all types of long-term
effects of the public library service.
In addition, there may also be claimed to exist types
of value yielded by public libraries that are not captured
by methods of economic assessment but that, neverthe-
less, may be relevant for public library policy. Throsby
(2003: 279–82) points to the term ‘cultural value’. This
term has recently been used as a supplement to
‘economic value’ in an attempt to capture the worth of a
good assessed in cultural terms that cannot be expressed
according to any quantitative or qualitative scale or in
monetary terms. He argues that willingness to pay (WTP)
studies ‘[. . .] will tend systematically to undervalue a
cultural good to the extent that there exist significant
positive elements in the good’s value that are incapable
of expression as individual WTP’ (p. 280).
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In view of the last comments, estimation of the
social value of public libraries based on assessments by a
population sample may therefore be an underestimation
since the libraries have long-term effects of which the
general public probably is unaware and since they may
yield ‘cultural value’ not captured in stated valuation
estimates. For assessing the wide range of long-term
impacts of public library services, experts and politicians
possess an information basis that the general public does
not hold. Experts may also be able to express the ‘cultural
value’ of public libraries, as defined by Throsby. In
attempting to arrive at an estimate of the full value of
public libraries in Norway, the results of the study may
need to be supplemented.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
‘The societal role of the libraries lies in the point of inter-
section between cultural policy, educational policy and a
policy for strengthening of the democracy’ (Kultur-
departementet, 1999: 51). In this way, the Norwegian
Ministry of Culture has formulated the foundation of
public libraries.
This purpose, generally accepted for public libraries
worldwide, has not been changed by the ICT revolution.
The purpose of public libraries is still to further democ-
racy, equality and social justice, increase access to infor-
mation, disseminate culture and knowledge, contribute
to a meaningful and informative leisure time, and act as
a communal institution and a social meeting place. In
order to fulfil this purpose today, however, there is a need
to re-evaluate the public libraries’ role by giving special
attention to the challenges of the digital society. This
article has focused on a widening of the digital gap and
a weakening of social participation and involvement and
pointed to the potential of strengthening the public
libraries’ democratic role by furthering social inclusive-
ness and citizenship.
There is a need, likewise apparent, to document
public library value in monetary terms also. At a time
where the economic pressure is continuing and increas-
ing, the need to demonstrate the economic importance of
public libraries is urgent.
NOTE
1. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of www, got his first http
address at the end of 1990 (http://www.w3.org/
People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html).
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