El Parnaso is an interesting cultural center in the small city of Young, which is located a bit north of Trinidad, Uruguay. This center is a non-profit organization dedicated to meeting the information needs of its population, and it contains a children's library and a music library. El Parnaso hosts a wide variety of activities for children and…

Public libraries in Hamilton provide countless services to different users, particularly older immigrants. The library system proves to be an inclusive learning space, promoting lifelong learning for all. The paper explores the relationship between public library use, lifelong learning and community development. In addition, it demonstrates the…

Introduction: This paper presents the findings from a project that investigated the lived experiences of library and information professionals in relation to evidence-based practice within an Australian public library. Method: The project employed ethnography, which allows holistic description of people's experiences within a particular community…

This paper examines the place of public libraries in supporting distance learners in Makerere University, exploring the factors which affect utilisation of their services. The study adopted a survey design with 300 B.Ed. students, collecting data through focus group discussions, structured questionnaires and individual interviews.

As a public library, a public good, provides many external benefits for the community it belongs to, its public value needs to be carefully assessed. More specifically, the Korean Government demands information on the public value that ensues from the establishment of the Gwangju branch of the National Library. This paper therefore attempts to…

This paper describes a public pedagogy project embedded into The Global Teacher, a subject within the Bachelor of Education program for student teachers at an Australian university. The subject provides a global perspective on socio-political issues that shape education. In 2013, The Global Teacher introduced an approach that asked student…

This paper discusses how public library readers in Almeida Garrett, Porto, create a reading atmosphere, focusing on meanings associated with aural conditions. Through a qualitative, single case study, ethnographic and interview techniques were applied. Readers' actual practices and discourses, through a theoretical sample, and those of managers,…

Introduction: The paper attempts to understand value constellations in organising and using the business information service that was recently developed by various stakeholders with libraries who were in pursuit of supporting people's problem solving in Japanese public libraries. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted not only with users and…

Introduction: Our paper describes three examples of how public libraries in at-risk-neighbourhoods have worked with social innovations in order to develop and strengthen their services for minority groups. The libraries were chosen because they are frontrunners in the field of cultural diversity and social inclusion in Denmark. Method: The…

The study is an evaluation of an employability training programme provided by Inverclyde Libraries in West Central Scotland and the role of information literacy within the training programme. Inverclyde is an area with high unemployment and pockets of multiple deprivation. Modern, applicable skills are also lacking. The findings are based on…

Singapore is now one of the fastest aging societies in the world. By 2030 those over 65 years old are expected to number 1.41m strong, 26.8 percent of the country's entire population. Given these numbers, it is not surprising that aging is a key concern in Singapore. This article reports on a qualitative study of 32 individuals over the age of 55…

Libraries across Australia are becoming increasingly involved in the development and implementation of family literacy programs, placing librarians at the centre of this initiative. "Better Beginnings" is a family literacy program developed by the State Library of Western Australian and delivered throughout the state. The program…

The purpose of this study was to explore the current state of information literacy (IL) training and to identify the strategies and methods used by Canadian public libraries in improving IL skills for their staff and patrons. Also, the study sought to identify problems associated with the development of IL training. This study employed document…

This article aims to present evidence of the warm glow effect in a public library setting. More specifically, it tests whether individual respondents with different values for the warm glow component report different values for their willingness to pay (WTP). The data come from a contingent valuation survey conducted on randomly selected citizens…

Situated in a review of rural, cultural, and youth geographies, this article reports on a qualitative study of the role of reading and libraries in the lives of older rural teenagers. The primary method of data collection was the use of in-depth, flexibly structured interviews with twenty-seven youth between the ages of fifteen and nineteen years,…