Joint policies for public quality: The common challenge for public libraries and the press to recuperate their positions

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show that the demise of quality in the press, possibly due to short‐sighted financial practices, and the decline in some uses of the public library are both effects of the tide of electronicification of information and knowledge. However, this new force can be re‐formed and used as a reinforcement of the democratic roots of society by integrating the public library as a centre of certified and validated culture and information and as the new public function of civil journalism.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper starts with a description of developments in the library world in which the Dutch case is taken as a typical example. Subsequently, the decline of the quality newspaper is discussed, its societal role and its increasing dependency on stock market value. Hereafter, the central role of the civic stakeholders is revisited to and the crucial position that free quality information has for a democratic society.

Findings

The analysis clearly shows that both institutions, the library and the press, face the same damage as a result of the rapid changes due to the electronic revolution in the media. However, going back to the societal functions of these institutions, the new media can also be used as an engine for change and for development of a novel integration of quality information creation and storage.

Originality/value

The paper defends the need for a concerted and conscious policy to turn the public library into a workspace for civil journalism and a centre not only of high culture, social cohesion and a quality information repository, but also as an integrated public space for democratic self‐publishing and news reporting.

Citation

Hans den Boef, A., Nijboer, J. and Kircz, J. (2009), "Joint policies for public quality: The common challenge for public libraries and the press to recuperate their positions", New Library World, Vol. 110 No. 1/2, pp. 52-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800910928586