Civic Librarianship. Renewing the Social Mission of the Public Library

Citation

Usherwood, B. (2002), "Civic Librarianship. Renewing the Social Mission of the Public Library", Library Management, Vol. 23 No. 4/5, pp. 260-261. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2002.23.4_5.260.2

Although it is written almost entirely from a US perspective, Ronald McCabe’s book examines issues that are vitally important to public librarians in most parts of the world. The “civic librarianship” of the title is a kind of bibliographical third way that, “offers a new balance between advocacy and neutrality”, rights and responsibilities.

The book owes a great deal to the work of a number of American social commentators who have identified a breakdown in the social connections of American society. Among these is Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, and said to be one of Tony Blair’s favourite gurus. Using lengthy and interesting extracts from the works of Putnam and other such writers, McCabe traces the development of what he describes as the “libertarian public library”. This is a library characterised by cultural relativism and “unbounded individualism”. It is, maintains McCabe with some justice, an unlikely foundation for a social institution.

The author then goes on to offer an alternative scenario which, although based on the traditional public library, “seeks to take that tradition several important steps forward with the help of new ideas from the community movement”. In so doing he addresses several issues that have concerned your reviewer. For example, he is critical of some librarians’ inability to make anything other than routine judgements. In particular, he rightly criticises the reluctance on the part of some in the profession to be prepared to assess the quality of materials. Perhaps more controversially, he argues that library rules should be seen as positive social safeguards, and suggests that in the age of the Internet the “extreme position taken by many librarians on the rights of children is … a mistake.”

He also goes on to challenge the use of the word “customer” to describe library users or patrons. He suggests that:

The community movement’s idea of balancing rights and responsibilities can help librarians see that the library’s relationship with users is, in fact, very different from the relationship of a business with its customers.

He argues that if we make the role of the public library indistinguishable from that of private sector organisations then the library becomes unnecessary.

For McCabe, the role, indeed the mission of the public library is, “education for a democratic society”. He contrasts this with the new mission of “providing access to information”. The latter, he says, does not take account of the human results of public libraries. Moreover access to information is no longer a problem. In fact we have too much information. In making this argument he quotes from David Shenk’s Data Smog, Surviving the Information Glut, “Education is one thing we can’t get overloaded with. The more of it the better.”

He links the educational role or, as he sees it, the rejection of that role, to the recruitment and retention of public library staff. This is another issue that has concerned British colleagues and they may wish to ponder his question:

Why would anyone want to dedicate their efforts to an educational institution that does not seek to educate? … If the public library is not actively trying to strengthen communities through education, why should a highly qualified person be interested in this work?

If there is a criticism to be made of this constantly challenging book it is one that can be applied to many US authors. Here, as with so many US publications, there is evidence of the apparent inability of our American colleagues to consider professional or academic writing from outside their own geographical boundaries.

Although Tony Blair and the third way do receive a couple of mentions in the text there is no mention of the work of Anthony Giddings. While, at a more parochial level, this reviewer, and colleagues at Comedia and the New Economic Foundation have, for some little while, been arguing the case for outcome measures that go beyond numeric data. However, McCabe ignores such work when he makes the case for new evaluation procedures for assessing the value of public libraries.

That having been said, your reviewer has no wish to appear xenophobic and is pleased to recommend Ronald McCabe’s thoughtful and stimulating book. As the author himself argues, there are real dangers in the increased isolation of individuals:

The strategy of collaboration to solve social problems recognises the need to involve the whole community in the solution of major social problems.

That is equally true of academic and professional communities. Can I suggest we stop “researching alone” and talk to each other?