Contribution of Public Libraries to Social Capital, Research Proposal Example

Abstract

The proposal focuses on the contribution of public library in social capital, and the relationship between social capital and public libraries. The objective is to find the role of public libraries and why we seek public libraries, and the contribution of libraries in the creation of social capital.

Problem Statement

My purpose to study this topic is to show why need a study in public libraries and to research their input to build “social capital”. How are they essential for the research of social capital in general, and beneficial particularly for library practice? The library profession directs to the significance of libraries regarding social capital and suggests that they are being ignored in this issue, and they have always been unnoticed.  Such strong opinions should be perfect for execution of research based strategies, library activities and policies to build social capital.

Many librarians suggest that public libraries are helpful in creating social capital, as well as trust in many people. Little research is done, in the supports the belief of librarians. Now there is a question that what are the factors that creates social capital or trust?. Is this intended association, interaction between people or is it public institutions? If the theory of social capital is considered, from the presented point of view, that public libraries are social meeting places and public institutions both. We can identify the two factors that create social capital. Opening findings shows that, in both ways, libraries generate   social capital. So if it is creating social capital by both the ways of social meetings and universalistic institutions they can be implicated for social capital theory and library practice (Andreas Vårheim, 2008).

Research Question

What is the role of libraries in generating social capital and trust with respect to different theoretical perspectives? What are the most appropriate perspectives for public libraries? How to expand the capabilities of improving trust for libraries?

Literature Review

There is much data available for creating social capital and trust. It’s a consent social capital essential for health, education, lives and economic development of people.(Are public libraries developers of social capital?). We can count empirical studies on social capital and public libraries on one hand. (Varheim). Library and librarians are the backbones of any educational institution. If the library has a great collection but no efficient librarian, it’s of no use, so both are compulsory for each other. People respect places like libraries and won’t mind following the rules of the library. There is a need to implement few changes for better and effective out of libraries. Concerned management should take care of all the things and must have the ability to update the record at least once in four months.

For working an accessible gathering place is required as libraries where different people from different backgrounds can intermingle and by this they learn much about each other. It’s also good for libraries to gain more importance when business and services of library transfers to borders of cities and towns. By removing the businesses and services from a community, it results in the reduction of social capital. When a society tends towards communities that take interest in moving the place, this result in loss; loss of the importance and loss of quality of the physical place.

The definition which is given by most of the scholars and which covers most of the aspects of social capital is “Social networks, Goodwill and confidence related quality “.In the definition, the structural components we have are the social networks. And the norms of trust are the other components of the definition. Because of my own reasons, I will be arguing that the trust in the generalized form and having trust in most of the people including someone you do not know, should be the part of the definition by which the best meaning of social capital is defined. There are no equal relationships shown in social networks between people and similarly the trust is stated by them.

Fewer times the members who are there in the social networks show trust in each other. This shows something opposite to the generalized trust, and it shows a particular trust someone has, which is only limited to his group. Mostly networks and group are formed because of some fear, because of fear of some external enemies. Trust that is only because of a group crime or trust which is because of the same race or same society is some examples in this case. As the generalized trust refers to bridging social capital, in the same way that particular trust uses a concept of bonding. There are three basic understandings regarding social capital that are widely used. The first understanding of social capital is named as rational choice understanding. As we take some physical capital, financial capital, or any other capital, the social capital is also seen in that form. As the financers invest in different financial assets because they want some higher returns in terms of money or any other capital, in the same way the rational actors do investment in a social relationship not to get capital in the form of money but the other form of capital i.e. social capital (trust and collective action).

On the second note, there comes another understanding about social capital, in this we study social capital from the perspective of society. It means that the social capital is created when you have face to face interaction by your own wish. It can be in any public place, it can be in a public library, it can be in a bus stop or it can be in shopping centers (How do public libraries function as meeting places? ). And this is how trust is formed and than resulting in a formation of networks.

Third understanding of social capital is that in which social network is formed in perspective of some institution on which same values and same benefits are provided to everyone. It can be a judicial system, some school, some NGO, public library or some university. Stages of descriptive research:

• Initially, examine the characteristics of the problem chosen.
• Secondly, define and formulate hypotheses.
• Thirdly, sets out the assumptions underlying assumptions and processes adopted are based.
• Fourthly, pick the topics and the appropriate sources.
• Fifthly, Selected or developed techniques for data collection.
• Set in order to classify the data, precise categories, to suit the purpose of the study and allow highlighting the similarities, differences and meaningful relationships.
• Check the validity of the techniques used for data collection.
• Perform objective and accurate observations.
• Finally, it describes, analyzes and interprets the data obtained in clear and precise terms.

Some early studies on Social capital and public libraries

Early studies that are done on these topics say that social capital were generated when there was some voluntary association participation by the people. But the people who are joining in that type of associations were having high social capital at the time when they were joining or before joining and finding voluntary associations created some sort of social capital among all of them who were joining because it was merely a self selection. The new research which has been done found that there is just a little proof the effect on social capital because of such voluntary associations. Because of these reasons, the social research has found two directions. When we talk about the societal perspective, there is informal relation such as in the neighborhood or the dinner parties and interest are focused on such contacts between people.  And for the social capital created in the institutions like interaction with each other in the universities there has been a response to give stress to the importance of such relations. And the last i.e. the third response in again focusing on the voluntary associations and they are not being seen from the angle of informal relation but to promote social capital by the means of the institutions of their civil societies. In ancient days, libraries were the only medium one can go , sit and read the book. With the passage of time, things have been changed now and we can see a tremendous change in education also, nowadays, student do not prefer to go to libraries sit and search for their required information, they prefer Google and other online platforms for their search. This attitude has bought down the importance of library and has decreased the list of library readers. Using technology is goo but book reading is essential as books are the best friends and there are no side effects of reading them. They give us a correct path and the most important thing a book can never guide wrong and only authentic facts gets published, while on the internet one ca find everything whether ethical or unethical. This is one of the most major drawbacks of the internet and information technology. Parent should take this into an account and resist their kids to read a book at least once in a month on any of his favorite topic. This will help them in their education and parent will be sure that their child is reading exactly what he should. There is a need to check on kids if one wants his child to be in the queue of leaders.

Participants

The participants of research would be:

• Library users
• Different staff members of different libraries
• Non-library users (people at shopping malls, universities, clubs or member of any other community who is participating)
• Students

Data Collection Method(s)

A report of the research data in perspective of finding different benefits of being a librarian obtained and the exact nature of the population from which they were extracted are indicated. The population universe or sometimes called added-is always a totality. The units that comprise it can be individuals, facts or otherwise. Once the population identified with that work, then decides whether data of the total population or a representative sample of it will be collected. The method chosen will depend on the nature of the problem and the purpose for which you want to use the data. Many times we can obtain information about all the units that make up a small population, but the results may not apply to any other group other than the study conducted.

It is very much important to select the population for extracting the data.  When it comes to excessively large population information is gathered from a few carefully selected units, as if each group is addressed, lost data validity before finalizing the study. If the elements in the sample represent the population characteristics, generalizations based on the data obtained can be applied to the whole group. For example, in this research the mostly the people related to business class have been selected.

It is an exploratory research where we use primary, secondary data and tertiary data. We will use publish papers, magazines, websites and other sources of secondary sources to find out our results. We will conduct the five interviews from librarian, who will be asked open ended questions to give their opinion. These interviews will be one to one and may have some focus group. We will also use tertiary sources to take the data. The use of all these sources is because we have to explore the topic. Then the collected data is analyzed to find out the conclusion. At last we will discuss the limitation of research and give some suggestion for future research in the relevant field. Following table will give the detailed methodology to conduct the research.

Ethical Considerations and limitations

This is very important topic as research on capital and public libraries. Important because of two reasons, the one reason is that it provides a unique environment for studying social capital and creates new knowledge. On the other hand, the possible contribution of public libraries in social capital is specified and verified. This knowledge can even be used for strategies, policies and activities that make public libraries better for creating social capital. The knowledge and research are very important, but we have the limitation of time. This is a requirement for the completion of our subject. Although we have used the three sources primary, secondary and tertiary, but the perfection of exploring cannot be got in a single paper. We have also connected with those librarians who are easy to approach in this study. Some of the participants were not giving the full detail and were conscious about the time they were giving. This paper has tried to explore the key points, but for the detail study and advancement in knowledge, in this sector I will advise for further research in a future. For any research, it’s very important to follow the guidelines and rules, every research must have its path and its limitations. The researcher must respect the word and rules. Following are the few considerations that are kept in mind while conducting the research.

Some Ethical Considerations are:

• Protect research subjects,
• Make sure that it’s a quality research
• Assure Your funders
• Don’t make a research that spoils reputation of this field of study.

Bibliography

Andreas Vårheim, S. S. (2008). Do libraries matter? Retrieved April 14, 2014, from emeraldinsight: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1752239&show=abstract

Are public libraries developers of social capital? (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2014, from thefreelibrary: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Are+public+libraries+developers+of+social+capital%3f+A+review+of+their…-a0295324475

How do public libraries function as meeting places? . (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2014, from hio: https://oda.hio.no/jspui/bitstream/10642/335/2/503013.pdf

Ignatow, Gabriel, Webb, S. M., Poulin, M., & Parajuli, R. (n.d.). Public Libraries and Democratization in Three Developing Countries: Exploring the Role of Social Capital. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from library.unt: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc81388/.

Trust and collective action. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2014, from indiana: www.indiana.edu/~workshop/papers/ahn_festschrift.pdf?

Varheim. (n.d.). Public libraries. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from uit: munin.uit.no/bitstream/handle/10037/5436/article.pdf?sequence=1