Social capital is the processes between people which establish relationships and social trust facilitating mutual cooperation and collaboration. It is the social fabric or glue that holds a community together. Since the mid 1990s, the concept of social capital has emerged as a key strategic driver underpinning many areas of government and public policy. This trend parallels concerns expressed by politicians, policy makers, academics and social theorists that levels of civic engagement are diminishing and communities are breaking down due to social disconnection, loss of trust and low levels of resilience. Emphasising the capacity of communities to build social capital, therefore, is envisaged as the way towards a social policy climate that prioritises community building and values of social cohesion and social inclusion. / Recent studies suggest that public libraries, in particular, with their commitment to social, equity and inclusiveness, have a crucial role in building communities and connecting people. By providing communities with a free and safe public place, libraries are in a unique position to facilitate the building of trust and relationships within their communities, thereby increasing social capital. However, the reality is that the broader social and community role of the public library is often neglected within general social capital debates, as well as within the library sector. / Against this background, this thesis sets out to articulate and demonstrate the role of public libraries in developing social capital. The contribution of public libraries to building social capital is illustrated through the undertaking and reporting of a social capital audit study of one public library. Through its demonstration of a social capital audit in practice, this thesis offers frameworks and guidelines to other libraries interested in conducting similar research. It therefore opens the way for others to build upon, and refine, the social capital audit tool as a means to measure and evaluate social capital performance in public libraries. / Thesis (MArts(InformationStudies))--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1997. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 315-330).

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1998. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-286).

Digital file includes the first chapter from The Librarian Stereotype: Deconstructing Presentations and Perceptions of Information Work, edited by Nicole Pagowsky and Miriam Rigby; digital file also includes foreword by James V. Carmichael, Jr., Embracing the Melancholy: How the Author Renounced Moloch and the Conga Line for Sweet Conversations on Paper, to the Air of "Second Hand Rose

The Grande Bibliothèque du Québec (GBQ), the merger of the National Library of Québec with the Central Municipal Library of Montréal in a ninety-million dollar construction project which opened in the spring of 2005, serves as the point of departure and as a model and metaphor for reflection on the significance of libraries in the cultural life of a society and in the construction of social identity. The province of Québec is unique, not only because it is the sole province in Canada where the citizens are a French language majority, but also because it is the only province to have established its own national library. The Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and other significant libraries around the world collect and preserve memory in ways that create a context for cultural recall. Government and religious leaders have, for a long time, recognized the potential that libraries have in influencing popular thought and ideas of citizens. In societies where democratization of information is fostered, libraries are promoted as a source of pride and cultural achievement in buildings that are constructed as architectural monuments. In war-torn regions or in areas under authoritarian control, library materials are censured and cultural epochs are erased or destroyed. The heated debates that took place at the turn of the late 19th and early 20th century over the creation of a public or municipal library in Montréal and in the struggle between religious and secular forces over control and direction of public reading characterize a lengthy discourse that parallels the development of the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and of public libraries in Québec. The various stages of evolution and current metamorphosis of the Bibliothèque nationale / Grande Bibliothèque can be viewed as a reflection of the evolution and metamorphosis of society and cultural memory in Québec throughout the nineteenth century to the present.

This study evaluates the purpose and role of the public library in national development in Botswana. Particular attention is focused on the public library as a community resource as well as its sensitivity in meeting the needs of community members and of organizations operating in the community. Chapter 1 introduces the nature of the problem, and brief historical and current developments of the public library in Botswana. Research objectives of the study are also outlined. Chapter 2 attempts to locate the public library in developing countries within development strategies such as the modernization and basic needs approach. Discussions further illustrate how policies emanating from these development strategies have influenced public library policies in these countries, and in Botswana. Attempts are made to show how the public library in Botswana is trying to adjust to shifts in emphasis of government development plans, especially the rural development emphasis. Chapter 3 outlines methods of research used to collect and process data obtained from the village Molepolole in Botswana. There is a brief discussion of the nature of this village as well as that of the community public library. Chapter 4 and 5 present findings of the household survey, and of community organizations and public librarians interviewed. An analysis and interpretation of findings of the household survey based on a sample of 203 readers drawn from the village is also presented. Community organizations interviewed include both government and non-government. Patterns of reading and views on the library of both readers in the survey and public library users, are explored. Chapter 6 presents a brief review of developments of the national campaign to eradicate illiteracy in Botswana, which was launched by the Department of Non-formal Education (DNFE) in 1970. The study shows what role the public library has been, and what it should be, in the provision of effective support for the promotion of literacy and reading. The last chapter gives a summary of findings, and suggests a model that could be adopted to develop an effective rural public library service in Botswana. The model is based on principles of the basic needs approach to development, which emphasizes appropriateness, focus on target groups, accessibility, affordability, integrativeness, participation and assertiveness. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1988.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 11, 2009). Advisor: Natasha Levinson. Keywords: library and information science, information literacy, library instruction, school librarianship, academic librarianship, professionalization of librarianship. Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-256).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Vermont, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 180-190).

In 2011 the pubic libraries in Gothenburg transitioned to floating collections. The process coincided with the temporary closing and renovation of the City Library, and was made possible by an almost simultaneous, centralisation of the libraries’ media budget that, as a side effect, also centralised the decision-making. The way that the process was decided upon and implemented gave rise to controversy, both within the administration and outside. This study delves into the decision-making process, how floating collections were introduced and how thetransition played out during the years 2011-2014. With the minutes of meeting from the so called “Library Management Group”, documents produced by the administration during the process and interviews with people involved, the study maps the steps that made the transition possible and the decisions that made it an inflamed topic. With added perspectives from organisational theory and critique of ideology the study goes into the mechanistics of decision-making within the framework of liquid modernity. It indicates a culture of decision-making that has left the bureaucracy of solid modernity behind and that sees the library organisation and employees within it as an obstacle instead of as a resource. The decision and the technical solution of floating collections is best understood as an object of ideology. That is to say that it is treated as a solution in itself to the contradictions and conflict that exists within the organisation. As the contradictions remain the decision-making in effect gives rise to more conflicts rather than less. The question from an ideological standpoint however is if this any longer poses a problem for the leadership, since there will always be new reorganisations to implement. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.