‘Educate a Woman and You Educate a Generation’

Norcup, Joanne

doi:10.1080/13528165.2017.1285567

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…These researchers have also long argued that public libraries represent so much more than these epistemic functions for which public libraries are traditionally known (e.g. Hoggart, 1957; Norcup, 2017; Williams, 1966), with multifunctional roles that span many different types of community provision over and above information services (e.g. Sørensen, 2021).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The public library as public sphere: a longitudinal analysis

Appleton

Hall

2022

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PurposeThe research was undertaken to explore the role of the UK public library as a public sphere and the ways in which this role relates to the epistemic, community and political functions of public libraries.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal, multi-location focus group approach was developed and deployed in three phases. Data were collected from 53 active public library users in a total of 24 focus groups conducted in eight different public library services in England and Scotland in 2015–2016 (Phase 1), 2016–17 (Phase 2) and 2017–18 (Phase 3). Data collected were transcribed and coded using NVivo 10- for thematic analysis.FindingsThe public library's role as public sphere aligns closely with its epistemic functions, adding a dimension to information services provision beyond access to “traditional” print and online sources. New information and knowledge emerge through the person-to-person interactions in public library space. Through such exchanges, the community function of public libraries is made evident, notably as a platform for citizens to participate actively in society, including its democratic processes.Originality/valueUnlike much extant prior work on public library value dominated with accounts of societal and/or economic impact, w hich is frequently based on the analysis of quantitative data, here the fundamental epistemic value of public library services is demonstrated. This research also adds an important perspective to the domain of Information Society Studies where, to date, the place of the public library as public sphere has been treated as peripheral.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The public library as public sphere: a longitudinal analysis

Appleton

Hall

2022

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“…This paper tells a story of how the library is attempting to continue in the context of, and live with, austerity as it brings about a re-emergent threat of contraction. As will become clear, this is central to how austerity is lived and felt within institutional spaces like the library (see also Norcup, 2017). Yet, it is also a particular story of the library as a workplace.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The affective life of austerity: uncanny atmospheres and paranoid temporalities

Hitchen

2019

Social & Cultural Geography

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThis paper moves beyond conceptualisations of austerity as a fiscal policy towards understanding austerity as lived and felt in everyday life, with a particular focus on its affective life. Through an ethnographic focus on public libraries, this paper argues that that austerity can take the form of an affective atmosphere. Bringing together psychoanalytic and Spinozist-Deleuzian accounts of affect this paper explores austerity as an uncanny atmosphere, in which austerity is lived through a series of unknowns that re-emerge throughout the library space. Paranoia subsequently emerges as a way in which to live with uncanny austerity -to make known the unknowns generated by austerity. This paranoia cannot be attributed to 'paranoid individuals', but to practices that become paranoid due to the blurring of reality and fiction that uncanny austerity generates. As austerity continues year after year, the uncertainties that emerge as a result of continual budget reductions are at the same time felt as something already known. In other words, there is a felt sense that austerity will inevitably lead to the contraction of the library service. Lived austerity, therefore, now carries such weight and has a particular depth of experience due to the innumerable previous years of, and encounters with, austerity.

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“…Today, public libraries within the UK are used by women in greater numbers than men (DCMS, 2015). Recent research has identified the importance of the library in women's everyday lives (Norcup, 2017;Robinson, 2020). Internationally, girls and women experience educational inequality (UNESCO, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Internationally, girls and women experience educational inequality (UNESCO, 2016). And, since cuts to public libraries and library closures disproportionately affect women (Frederiksen, 2015), and women also make up the majority of librarians (Kelly, 1977;Norcup, 2017) cuts, closures and questions around the relevance of libraries are gendered matters. So too are instrumental accounts of the value of the library which present a narrow picture of its significance (see, for example, Crawford & Irving, 2013;Shenton & Dixon, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Libraries in women’s lives: everyday rhythms and public time

Spencer-Bennett

2020

Educational Review

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This paper asks how libraries have rhythmed women's education and everyday lives. It draws on women's narratives of library use in a multicultural suburb of Birmingham, UK. It shows that women's use of libraries exists in rhythmic relations with other times and places, both public and private. The narratives reveal the value of the library in offering space for women to claim time for themselves in the Lefebvrian "weak time, the stops, silences, blanks". Routines, cycles and continuity of use over various scales are important in women's engagements with libraries. Memorable too are particular moments. Punctuating the quotidian rhythms of library use, these moments are individual stories of rupture; times of great significance in women's lives. Changes to library provision have, therefore, rhythmic consequences, with reduced opening hours and library closure bringing arrhythmia. Through the library, women are linked to particular histories and they enter into shared rhythms, within both the present and the past. Libraries, this paper argues, offer not only an important public space but also public time. 1

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‘Educate a Woman and You Educate a Generation’

Cited by 13 publications

References 13 publications

The public library as public sphere: a longitudinal analysis

The public library as public sphere: a longitudinal analysis

The affective life of austerity: uncanny atmospheres and paranoid temporalities

Libraries in women’s lives: everyday rhythms and public time

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