Tag Archives: social infrastructure

Libraries at the Heart of Educational, Social, Cultural, Innovation and Democratic Infrastructure

When we talk about infrastructure, it’s easiest to think of things like roads, railways, bridges.

Things that connect us together, allowing economies and societies to work. Things that serve many people, and many purposes, providing a basic service that you may take for granted when you have, but that you miss when you don’t.

They combine with other activities – production of goods, provision of services, engagement between people – in order to support growth and social cohesion.

While traditionally, as mentioned, we tend to see infrastructure as being about transport, it is also clearly applicable to other types of connection, such as energy or connectivity.

Again, these are clearly essential for allowing all sorts of different activities – economic and otherwise. They make it possible for more focused interventions – such as business support, training programmes or other initiatives – to create healthy and equitable economies and societies. We have already blogged about the role of libraries in connectivity infrastructure.

This idea of infrastructure as a basic service supporting the delivery of wider success can also apply to other policy areas. They also rely both on there being structures in place, as well as ongoing services or other activities.

This blog explores this idea for a number of policies, and underlines how libraries are, arguably, a core part of these other infrastructures.

Educational infrastructure: ensuring that everyone has the chance to learn and develop throughout life should be a clear priority for any economy or society. Core to achieving this are of course great teachers, helping children and others.

But they in turn rely on having access to adequate schools, with the facilities and resources to make their job easier. Within schools, libraries represent a crucial resource, not only helping teachers with materials, but also helping develop key skills, and providing a space for students to extend their learning.

Looking beyond people of school age, there is a key role for further education colleges, but also for community institutions such as libraries which provide both a portal and a platform for learning.

By putting potential learners in touch with opportunities, providing a space for education initiatives, and enabling self-led learning, a strong library network can provide a crucial infrastructure for education providers for people of all ages.

Social Infrastructure: social policy is most often associated with a combination of targeted benefits or supports, and interventions and programmes focused on individuals, in order to promote inclusion, equality and cohesion.

But achieving this goal in a lasting fashion requires more. Eric Klinenberg has of course already popularised the idea of libraries representing a form of social infrastructure – a key basic service on which successful societies can be built.

They do this by providing a space, and a reference point, for communities. They also enable the achievement of the goals of other programmes through providing a space where everyone can feel welcome, and supporting the education and development that is often at the heart of reintegration.

Once again, this support can come simply through the presence of welcoming libraries, through their own programming, or through their role in providing a portal to, or platform for, services provided by others.

Cultural Infrastructure: culture can be both a goal in itself, and instrumental in supporting wider policy objectives such as cohesion, innovation, and wellbeing. It should also, clearly, be egalitarian, giving everyone the possibility both to benefit from the ideas of others, and to come up with their own.

While plenty of creativity happens everyone, including of course in people’s homes, there is nonetheless a need for infrastructure. Especially for the performing arts, the existence of theatres and other venues is clear in order to allow creative individuals and groups to connect with audiences.

Yet literature too has its venues, in the form of libraries, bookshops and other places that allow people to discover and enjoy writing. Indeed, these are often the most local cultural centre that many people have!

Indeed, especially for those who many not benefit from having their own quiet space at home, the possibility to visit a library in order to read, and discover new ideas, is clear. Libraries can also provide a gateway to other forms of culture, encouraging users to express their creativity in other ways through hosting events or providing access.

Innovation Infrastructure: research and innovation too benefit from being able to count on a core infrastructure. Governments can invest in things like super-computers (to provide the computing power for advanced analysis), venues for carrying out tests and experiments, or open science infrastructures. These allow researchers and innovators to go further, and faster, than would otherwise be possible.

Libraries, too, are arguably essential parts of the innovation infrastructure of any country, providing access to existing knowledge, and supporting the production and dissemination of new ideas. They have also, clearly, been at the heart of advocacy for open access and open science.

It is worth noting the importance of special collections and specialised knowledge which may only exist in one or a few places within a country, or even globally. Even relatively small libraries can be irreplaceable parts of the innovation infrastructure.

Democratic Infrastructure: democracy, first and foremost, is about people using their rights to decide who should be in power, or indeed what those who are in power should do. This happens through voting, in person, by post or proxy, or even online.

Yet for the choice people make on election or referendum days to be meaningful, more is needed than polling stations and vote-counting offices. Democracy also relies on informed individuals, and a sense of shared belonging.

Achieving this also relies on infrastructures – spaces and programmes to build an understanding of issues and debates, as well as simply where people can see and feel that they are part of the same community as their neighbours and others.

Libraries contribute to this, through acting as a social infrastructure (see above), through giving space for discussion and debate, through hosting and supporting engagement with open government data and beyond. They can also simply help by being a symbol of public service within the community, reminding people of what governments do, and why this matters.

Conclusion

The blog has looked at just five areas where, arguably, policy success benefits from – or even depend on – the existence of an infrastructure enabling more focused activities to take place.

Of course, the problem is that when the benefits created by such infrastructures are widely spread, it can be difficult to convince any single individual or business is likely to want – or be able – to pay for such infrastructure on their own. Why should they pay when others benefit?

This is why governments often have such an important role in supporting infrastructure, ensuring that it is part of any wider plan, either policy area by policy area, or in wider sustainable development strategies.

In each of the areas set out here – and beyond – there is a therefore a case to be made to governments that libraries need to be seen, and supported, as vital infrastructures, and accordingly integrated into plans and strategies for success. Indeed, given the unique cross-cutting role of libraries, our institutions arguably need to be integrated into plans at the highest level, to ensure that their potential to facilitate progress is fully realised.

Library Stat of the Week #26: Countries with more public and community librarians tend to have higher levels of social cohesion

Eric Klinenberg’s book, Palaces for the People, has popularised the idea of libraries as key parts of the ‘social infrastructure’ of the communities they serve.

This role matters, because social infrastructure supports the development of social capital – strong connections between people, often associated with trust – commonly seen as a key driver of development.

For example, when there are strong levels of trust between people, they need to spend less time protecting their own interests, and can cooperate more easily to achieve other things, such as a strong economy, inclusive social policies, or action to tackle climate change.

Trust can be built through common references and rules, often themselves developed through contacts between people. Libraries – especially public and community libraries – support both, allowing members of communities to meet and exchange in a shared space, often supported by shared resources and heritage.

Klinenberg looks at the role of libraries in building social cohesion at the level of individual cases. But what can we tell at the macro-level?

To do this, we can cross statistics from IFLA’s Library Map of the World with those from the OECD’s Society at a Glance 2016 publication. As previously in our Library Stat of the Week series, we have looked at figures both for numbers of public and community libraries and library workers.

Graph 1 compares numbers of libraries and library workers (on the horizontal X-axis) with the share of the population who felt that other people could be trusted. Each dot represents one country.

This graph indicates a positive but relatively weak correlation between numbers of library workers and levels of trust, and relatively little relationship at all between numbers of libraries and trust.

There is a positive story in here, as regards library workers of course. As we have indicated in previous posts, it is clear that the presence of librarians can play a decisive role in ensuring that libraries achieve their outcomes.

However, as concerns the number of libraries, the figure is perhaps a little disappointing. Nonetheless, from looking at the graph, it stands out that the relationship may vary as the number of libraries per 100 000 people grows.

Graph 2 looks further into this question, including a trend line only for countries with fewer than 20 libraries per 100 000 people (i.e. one library per 5000 people).

The difference here is striking. There is a much stronger positive correlation between numbers of libraries and trust in countries with up to 20 libraries per 100 000 people (the light blue line), but after this, the relationship becomes much flatter.

Graph 3 repeats the same process for countries with up to 40 public and community library workers per 100 000 people (the yellow line), coming to a similar conclusion. The relationship between library workers and trust is much stronger among countries below the threshold of 40 workers per 100K.

This finding is an interesting one, and would support the conclusion that in particular in countries which invest less in libraries (as measured by the number of public and community libraries and library workers), there are significant gains to be had from strengthening the field (or costs from making cuts).

Beyond a certain threshold, the gains (or costs) in terms of social cohesion are less dramatic, although as seen in previous posts, there may be impacts in other fields, such as skills or equality.

As always in this series, it is important to note that correlation is not causality. Further research would be needed to assess to what extent other factors may be in play, and it is of course also possible that societies that invest more in libraries tend to be those who believe more in supporting communal services and activities.

Nonetheless, the data here does provide a useful indicator that countries with more public and community libraries and library workers, there tends to be higher levels of social cohesion.

Find out more on the Library Map of the World, where you can download key library data in order to carry out your own analysis! See our other Library Stats of the Week! We are happy to share the data that supported this analysis on request.

Culture, Community and (Social) Capital: The Role of Libraries

The work of Eric Klinenberg on the role of libraries as social infrastructure has received a lot of attention in the library world.

Based on his research among residents of New York, he heard countless stories of people whose lives had been changed – improved – through the time they had spent in libraries, through their contact with librarians.

His arguments are based strongly on the idea of social capital – the connections between people that allow them to work together more effectively.

In making this link between libraries and social capital, Klinenberg brings our institutions into a space where those interested in museums and sites have long been active – the connection between cultural institutions and places and community well-being (for example here).

A day after World Habitat Day, in the European Week of Regions and Cities, and ahead of the launch of the Climate Heritage Network, this blog looks further at this connection, and in particular the challenges it faces.

Social Capital

As highlighted, the notion of social capital, in broad terms, is about connections between people. These connections can be based on norms and values – specific beliefs as to what is acceptable or not, and a sense of what is important.

In turn, these norms and values allow people to develop trust, building cooperation and saving time and effort. In times of hardship, it can allow for greater resilience and quicker recovery.

Of course the links in question are not always universal. In talking about social capital, there is talk of bonds and bridges. Bonds are what connect people within a group, and bridges are what connects people in one group with those in another.

Too much focus on links within a single group can be unhealthy, and lead to some being excluded. In order to build the widest possible sense of community, there is a need not only to support internal connectedness, but to provide opportunities to build bridges.

In ensuring both of these, both knowledge and spaces have a role to play. This understanding is already at the heart of reflection on how museums and other heritage sites contribute – through providing common reference points, as well as a space where people can come together.

As Klinenberg’s work points out, this is just as true for libraries.

Communities and Climate Change

All sorts of challenges can test the resilience of communities. Economic change, dramatic policy shifts and conflict all force changes to daily life and require adaptation.

Climate change will certainly lead to many such situations, as groups face extreme weather events, need to adopt new ways of living, or even need to abandon villages, towns and cities.

These shifts can be traumatic. Changing habits, structures and economic models may affect the norms and values that underpin social capital.

At worst, the heritage – the buildings and objects which offer a physical reference point, the documents and ideas that offer a mental one, and the spaces that enable interaction – are at risk of being lost.

The consequence of this can be to reduce social capital, both within groups, and between them, at a time when it is needed most. It can make recovery and adaptation slower and longer, if it happens at all.

At best, just as in the cases identified by Klinenberg in his own work in New York, libraries can offer both the space and the substance necessary for building social capital, even in situations of hardship, and so making communities more resilient.

The explicitly public focus of libraries – and their ability to reach out to people who may not identify with other cultural institutions – mean that they have a potentially highly important contribution.

It is helpful to see potential for a convergence in the work done by libraries and museums and other heritage institutions on where – and how – they can build social capital.

Given the respective strengths of each, there is also strong scope not just for connections within our sectors, but also across them. In the face of climate change, the chances are that this will be more and more necessary.