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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of public libraries as institutions underpinning a democratic public sphere as reasons legitimizing libraries compared to reasons that are more traditional and the actual use of libraries as public sphere arenas.

A survey of representative samples of the adult population in six countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland – was undertaken.

Legitimations related to the libraries role as a meeting place and arena for public debate are ranked as the 3 least important out of 12 possible legitimations for upholding a public library service. Libraries are, however, used extensively by the users to access citizenship information and to participate in public sphere relevant meetings.

Few studies have empirically analyzed the role of libraries in upholding a democratic and sustainable public sphere. This study contributes in filling that gap.

In museum research, museums are held as vital in maintaining the public sphere. This scoping review takes stock of the present status of museum–public sphere research by providing an overview of the existing literature as a point of departure for future research. In short, it maps the research aims, theoretical concepts, research methods and findings within the field and identifies research gaps.

A scoping review methodology is used to provide a knowledge synthesis of the museum–public sphere literature. This approach is instrumental for researching multi-disciplinary, fragmented or underdeveloped research fields. Reviews can help identify otherwise easily overlooked gaps in the research literature and are an essential tool.

Overwhelmingly, the published literature consists of case studies, some of which are theoretically ambitious. Still, cases are selected without explicit goals regarding analytical or theoretical generalization, and the studies are not placed within a theory-building framework. Moreover, the museum–public sphere research primarily focuses on museums in the core Anglosphere countries and is conducted by researchers affiliated with institutions in those countries. The museum–community relationship is a common research theme addressing engagement with the public through either visitor participation or community participation.

This is the first published scoping review or systematically conducted review and knowledge synthesis of the museum–public sphere research literature to our knowledge. The article finds and discusses a range of research gaps that need to be addressed theoretically and empirically.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the shaping of public libraries as an infrastructure for a sustainable public sphere through a comprehensive literature review.

In order to capture the whole picture of this research field, we utilize comprehensive review methodology. The major research questions are: first, to what extent have research topics regarding libraries as public sphere institutions expanded and diversified? Which theoretical perspectives inform research? Second, which challenges and topics does the research focus upon, such as: social inclusion and equal access to information; digital inequalities; censorship and freedom of expression; and access to places and spaces with a democratic potential and the role of libraries in that respect? Third, what influence has social media exerted on libraries in the context of the expanding digital world?

The authors identified mainly four themes regarding the public library and public sphere, such as: the importance of public libraries by using Habermas’s theory; the function of meeting places within the public library and setting those places in the center of the library in order to enhance and encourage democracy; the relationship between social inclusion and public libraries and its functions in current society such as diminishing the digital divide; and the emerging electronic resources and arena of SNS in public libraries and utilizing them to reach citizens.

Capturing the recent history of this research field through comprehensive review is valuable.

Libraries, museums and cultural centers have long served as cultural ambassadors and foreign policy instruments, bridging diplomatic relationships among nation-states and institutions. The purpose of this scoping review is to ascertain and understand the emerging areas of research on libraries, museums and cultural centers in foreign policy and cultural diplomacy within broader research paradigms of international relations, social sciences, education and library and information studies by systematically mapping key concepts and identifying the types of studies and knowledge gaps.

Using the Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) Manual for Evidence Synthesis, relevant peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book chapters that were published over a wide time period in any language from various databases were systematically examined. Two reviewers worked independently to extract the data and reached a consensus regarding the inclusion criteria using the JBI’s data charting template.

In total, 6,436 citations were screened, and 57 documents were identified as eligible for inclusion. The following sequences were reviewed and explored: study characteristics, theoretical approaches and research themes. The research themes were grouped into broader ones that included goals, actors, strategies and instruments. Finally, the concentration and clusters of ideas and gaps that emerged in the identified studies were investigated, resulting in a discussion of the recommendations and directions for future research.

This first scoping review is a useful tool for investigating the changing and novel roles of libraries, museums and cultural centers in cultural diplomacy and foreign policy. Although substantial work exists on the topic, the potential remains for interdisciplinary research to challenge and extend the current knowledge about cultural diplomacy practices in libraries, museums and cultural centers.

The purpose of the paper is to present the latest scholarly trends in the field of social capital in libraries, to review research concepts published by LIS professionals and to suggest further research possibilities in this area.

This paper presents a review and critical analysis of literature associated with research on social capital in libraries to highlight its importance for the development of LIS and its impact on the functioning of environments linked with various types of libraries. The goal of literature analysis was to determine the current condition of research on social capital in libraries. The main trends were identified and the need for further qualitative analyses, which are missing at the moment, was confirmed.

It was determined that, so far, LIS professionals have focussed mainly on the role of municipal libraries in developing social capital, the problem of building trust, especially in immigrant circles and the impact of libraries on promoting a civil society. Academic libraries, rural libraries, organisational capital in libraries and individual social capital of librarians were a much less frequent subject of research. The role of libraries in developing social capital in educational (primary and secondary education) and professional (non-university professionals) circles is practically non-existent in research, and it will require in-depth studies and analyses in the coming years.

This paper constitutes a synthetic review of the latest research concepts concerning social capital in libraries. It identifies the most important research trends and areas that so far have not been explored and suggests research methods to help LIS professionals design future research in this area more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to show why studies of public libraries, regarding their possible contribution in creating social capital, are important for social capital research in general, and are important for library practice in particular.

Building on the latest theoretical developments and empirical findings of social capital research, the role of the public library as a potential creator of social capital is discussed. Findings from both quantitative and qualitative empirical research are discussed, and also the need for further studies is presented.

The paper reports quantitative macro‐level results concerning whether public library expenditure can contribute in explaining social trust patterns in the OECD countries. However, to be able to ascertain this, numerous qualitative studies revealing the mechanisms actually generating generalized trust are needed. Preliminary qualitative interviews suggest that this approach can prove fruitful.

The implications for further research into public libraries and the building of generalized trust are twofold: one the one hand, more specific research questions on the role libraries can be asked regarding accommodating diversity and increasing trust among diverse groups, e.g. immigrants. On the other hand, the suitability of the public library for investigating these questions makes the results relevant for social capital research in general.

The library profession points to the importance of libraries for social capital and maintain that libraries have been overlooked in this matter. Strong sentiments like this should be ideal for implementation of research based library policies, strategies and activities for creating social capital.

What is new in this research is that studies of public libraries may contribute in resolving the impasse within contemporary social capital research where neither institutional nor societal perspectives seem to be able to verify how social capital is created.

Librarians and the library profession keep repeating that libraries contribute greatly to generating social capital by “building community”. However, little evidence of this has been presented. This paper aims to be a first step towards correcting this situation by asking whether public libraries matter in the creation of generalized trust.

This study used quantitative data in analyzing macro‐level data on whether public library expenditure could explain social trust patterns in the OECD countries. Additionally, a few qualitative interviews with public library leaders in the USA and Norway were used to indicate by what mechanisms, or by which processes, libraries generate generalized trust.

The main finding is that public libraries seem the most important factor in creating generalized trust in the OECD area, even more so than efficient/impartial public institutions. However, there is the problem of causal direction. It might be the case that it is high trusting countries that prioritize public libraries. Therefore, times series data are needed as well as qualitative data on the process of trust creation in the library. Interviews with library leaders point towards the fact that they see outreach activities as creating trust and that people trust the library. Replication of these results, however, is crucial. Moreover, the findings appear to indicate that when the library's attention is directed at disadvantaged groups of non‐users it is the widespread trust in the public library institution that breeds trust among these groups too.

The paper contributes to the understanding/theory of the creation of generalized trust in general and to the role of the public library in this process.

Social capital, understood as intangible community values available through a network of connections, is a factor in the development of societies and improving quality of life. It helps to remove economic inequalities and prevent poverty and social exclusion, stimulate social and regional development, civic attitudes and social engagement and build a civic society as well as local and regional identity. Many of these tasks may be implemented by libraries, which, apart from providing access to information, may also offer a number of services associated with social needs. The purpose of this paper is to present the roles and functions that libraries may serve in local communities in terms of assistance, integration and development based on classical social capital theories.

The paper reviews the classical concepts of social capital in the context of libraries. It analyses the findings of Pierre-Félix Bourdieu, James Coleman, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Putnam, Nan Lin, Ronald Stuart Burt, Wayne Baker and Alejandro Portes. Based on their respective concepts, the paper analyses the role of the contemporary library in the social life of local communities. In particular, it focuses on the possible new functions that public libraries may serve.

A critical review of the concept of social capital revealed certain dependencies between libraries and their neighbourhoods. With new services that respond to the actual social needs, libraries may serve as a keystone, namely they may integrate, animate and engage local communities. This, however, requires a certain approach to be adopted by the personnel and governing authorities as well as infrastructure and tangible resources.

The social engagement of libraries is usually described from the practical perspective (reports on the services provided) or in the context of research on the impact of respective projects on specific groups of users (research reports). A broader approach, based on original social theories, is rarely encountered. The paper draws on classical concepts of social capital and is a contribution to the discussion on possible uses of those concepts based on an analysis of the role of libraries in social life and in strengthening the social capital of local communities.

The purpose of this paper is to invite further consideration of and research into the authoritativeness, reliability and trustworthiness of documents. How do documents come to be trusted? Why are some more trusted than others?

The cases of the Oxford English Dictionary and Wikipedia policies are explored from a historical perspective, and other cases are considered.

Authoritativeness seems inherent to documents because of a cognitive metaphor that says “what is persistent is trustworthy”.

This feature of documents exposes users to a number of pitfalls related to trusting illegitimate documents. This has important implications for document literacy.

New insight into documents is achieved by applying cognitive metaphors and prototype theory to documents.