The Public Library Service
The Public Library Service

Author: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Section of Public Libraries

Publisher: NBD Biblion Publishers

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9783598218279

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The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the information profession. The series IFLA Publications deals with many of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.

Circulation of Power
Circulation of Power

Author: Michael M. Widdersheim

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-05-22

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 3111013405

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What is the public sphere, how is it best described, and what role does it play in modern life? These questions have attracted considerable attention within library and information science circles over several decades, especially regarding public libraries. Circulation of Power contributes to this discussion by proposing a new research framework and new methods for analyzing public sphere communication. Using extensive data gathered from an urban public library infrastructure, this historical case study demonstrates how public sphere communication shaped the infrastructure’s development over time, producing both changes and continuities across the case’s nine periods. Two new conceptual tools—circuits and decisions cycles—form the study’s research framework, and a new explanatory theory—RLCr, or "Releaser," theory—accounts for why the infrastructure developed as it did. Consideration of competing theories reveals that public sphere communication remains the best explanation for infrastructural development. This book’s meticulous historical narrative of the greater Pittsburgh case, supplemented by its groundbreaking theory and innovative mixed methods design, is of interest to practitioners, academics, and general readers alike.