A History of Location of U.S. Public Libraries Within Community Place and Space: Evolving Implications for the Library's Mission of Equitable Service

Koontz, Christie

doi:10.1300/j118v26n01_05

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Savolainen's (2009) analysis of information grounds and small worlds elucidates how spatial factors "constrain and afford information seeking and sharing" (p. 41) in small worlds, while they serve as "important qualifiers of information grounds" (p. 41). Studies examining the effects of rural environments on information behavior (Johnson & Griffis, 2014;Kanungo, 2004) and library and facilities placement (Koontz, 2007) are all built on the assumption that place and location matter.…”

Section: Lis Research: Explicit and Implicit Placementioning

confidence: 99%

Place, community and information behavior: Spatially oriented information seeking zones and information source preferences

Gibson

Kaplan

2017

Library & Information Science Research

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Even in a digitally advanced society, much of our daily lives is based in place, but information behavior research has largely ignored place as theoretically relevant to information behavior. This study explores the implications of a place-based approach to studying information practices, and examines factors that influence information seeking and sharing in place-based communities among parents of individuals with disabilities. Based on qualitative data gathered from 35 parents of individuals with disabilities, it proposes a spatial model of information source preferences based on the theory of information horizons, and discusses implications of the model for future research related to information seeking and places. It also presents substantive place-related findings about local information needs, including discussion of the local parent network as an information seeking system.

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Section: Lis Research: Explicit and Implicit Placementioning

confidence: 99%

Place, community and information behavior: Spatially oriented information seeking zones and information source preferences

Gibson

Kaplan

2017

Library & Information Science Research

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“…Whilst GIS functionalities in the form of basic mapping of facility locations are increasingly used to help inform decision-making processes surrounding the planning of public services, library authorities are not routinely using the types of network-based accessibility techniques developed in this paper as part of their impact assessments. This is despite the welldocumented use of spatial approaches in the academic literature relating to the wider aspects of library provision including, for example, assessing initial siting decisions, analysis of branch locations, facilities management, monitoring trends in library utilisation and the delineation and analysis of library service areas (Bishop, 2008;Bishop and Mandel, 2010;Donnelly, 2014;Hertel and Sprague, 2007;Koontz, 1997Koontz, , 2007Ottensmann, 1997;Sin, 2011). Previous studies have shown how GIS can be used to optimise sites for new library facilities (Lim and Park, 2015) or tailor the opening hours of facilities to the demographic characteristics of those living or working in specified catchment areas (Adkins and Sturges, 2004).…”

Section: Monitoring Changes In Spatial Accessibility To Library Servimentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impacts of changing public service provision on geographical accessibility: An examination of public library provision in Pembrokeshire, South Wales

Higgs

Jones

Langford

et al. 2017

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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Public libraries make an important contribution to the wellbeing of local people often acting as community hubs by reducing the isolation felt by vulnerable members of society through promoting social interaction and supporting the wider needs of local communities. However access to libraries is threatened in Wales, as elsewhere in the UK, by uncertainty stemming from changes in local government service delivery models, austerity-driven cuts in public spending, changing demands on the service from the public and the potential impacts of new developments in digital services and technologies. Drawing on network-based analysis of changes to library services in a predominantly rural authority in South-West Wales, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be used to monitor the impacts of alternative models of provision currently being considered by library authorities. By examining the spatial impacts of changes in services following a period of reconfiguration in this library authority, we point the way to methods that enable levels of provision that meet community needs to be sought during times of budgetary pressures and proposed changes to the delivery of public services.

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“…Several primary ways library members and library membership have been examined are through relationships of use or access or through broad reference to the library as community place in relationship with its public. Library use and access studies identify members indirectly by their user behaviors and access characteristics, including their sociodemographic data such as age or generation (e.g., Howard 2011;Cavanagh and Robbins 2012), the types of library services they are accessing (e.g., Bertot, McClure, and Jaeger 2008), the particular geographic location of the library that is the subject of the study (e.g., Given and Leckie 2003;Koontz 2007), their uses of library places and spaces (e.g., Aabø and Audunson 2012), and their use of information technologies (e.g., Williams 2012).…”

Section: Public Library Perspective On Membershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structuring an Action Net of Public Library Membership

Cavanagh¹

2015

The Library Quarterly

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A B S T R A C TThis article introduces a theoretical framework for conceptualizing public library membership and belonging as an ongoing action net of joint intention and collective action between individual members of the public and the library. It provides an analysis of how membership is constituted, observed, and documented by public libraries from a social-constructivist perspective. Drawing on social theory and philosophy, organizational studies, and secondary public library data sources, a high-level typology of public library member categories from the political and organizational modes of public library action is proposed. Member types are characterized using institutionalized structures of public library use, access, data, discourse, behavior, and social media applications. Implications of this framework for future research and public library innovation are suggested in conclusion."

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A History of Location of U.S. Public Libraries Within Community Place and Space: Evolving Implications for the Library's Mission of Equitable Service

Cited by 17 publications

References 8 publications

Place, community and information behavior: Spatially oriented information seeking zones and information source preferences

Place, community and information behavior: Spatially oriented information seeking zones and information source preferences

Assessing the impacts of changing public service provision on geographical accessibility: An examination of public library provision in Pembrokeshire, South Wales

Structuring an Action Net of Public Library Membership

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