Search results

In rural Malawi, money constantly circulates. As soon as villagers, poor as they are, get some money in hands, it is swiftly spent. Tracking how money – and other valued items like food and soap – are pushed and pulled around through an extremely poor community offers profound insights into women’s everyday survival tactics. Central to these women’s survival is the ability to mobilise support in times of need. Material wealth is found to be both a prerequisite and a threat to this ability. It can best be spent quickly, in particular ways, so as to transform it into potential sources of future support in times of need. Maximizing access to potential future support while minimizing blockage – by always appearing able to reciprocate and not giving others socially acceptable justifications to withhold support – are concerns that to a great extent shape the village women’s everyday decision-making. Understanding the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that both result from and trigger these survival tactics is important for social scientists and policy-makers as these have far-reaching consequences, including women’s HIV risk-taking, which are difficult to explain from other vantage points.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what con`sequences the digitisation of public libraries’ knowledge dissemination and the transition to online services has, for library staff members’ perception of their skills. This discussion is interesting because library staff members, by politicians, stakeholders, and other opinion makers, have been appointed as key facilitators of citizens’ continued attachment to civil society and the labour market.

This study is based on interviews with library staff members at Danish public libraries. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured e-mail interviews, based on an interview formula, and via follow-up telephone conversations. Library professional rapports and research literature were identified and applied as a theoretical framework in the creation of the analytical apparatus.

There were several different explanatory models available when respondents had to articulate their current challenges. The first model regarded the library staff members’ lack of skills as a political-organisational issue, occurring because of a lack of invest in their continuing education. Continuing education had therefore become a personal matter. The second model highlighted the library staff members’ lack of skills as an individual, library professional problem, where the responsibility for solving the problem lay with the individual employee.

Several studies have been conducted on library staff members’ skills and how they change, due to the transition to digital forms of dissemination. The present study strives to give employees a voice, which is why the respondents’ experiences are the starting point for the analytical work. Such studies are essential to understanding the extent and nature of the problem.

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.