The legitimacy of Scandinavian libraries, archives and museums as public spheres: Views from the professionals

Abstract

This article analyses how library, archive and museum professionals legitimize the use of scarce societal resources for maintaining their respective organizations, with a special emphasis on their role as public-sphere infrastructure. Drawing on data from a survey among professionals in libraries, archives and museums in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the authors investigate whether professionals across these institutions have similar expectations of their organizations to serve as public spheres. The analysis is contextualized with references to current library, archive and museum legislation across the three countries. The authors conclude that there are many similarities across the three countries, although national library, archive and museum legislation differs. This is interpreted in light of new public governance being a dominant regime of governance.

Managing Norwegian public libraries as civil public spheres: recent controversies

“…As of 2014, public libraries are in Norway also expected to provide a space where citizens can come together as a public (Habermas, 1989, p. 27) and engage in public deliberations (Audunson and Evjen, 2017;Larsen, 2018;Larsen et al, 2023;Golten, 2019Golten, , 2022Widdersheim et al, 2021;Kawamoto et al, 2022;Koizumi and Larsen, 2023), in that the revised first paragraph of the law states that public libraries are to be arenas for public discussions and debate (Norwegian Public Library Act, 1985;Prop. 135L 2012Prop.…”

“…Furthermore, the state is omnipresent in the Nordic culture-and media sectors as a key provider of facilitating inputs to the civil sphere (Engelstad and Larsen, 2019). The state is in the Nordic countries active in supporting the physical public sphere (Habermas, 1989) arenas where actors can engage in discussions (Larsen, 2018;Larsen et al, 2023), which as of 2014 is an explicit part of the societal mission of Norwegian public libraries (Norwegian Public Library Act, 1985;Prop. 135L 2012Prop.…”

“…As of 2014, public libraries are in Norway also expected to provide a space where citizens can come together as a public (Habermas, 1989, p. 27) and engage in public deliberations (Audunson and Evjen, 2017; Larsen, 2018; Larsen et al. , 2023; Golten, 2019, 2022; Widdersheim et al.…”