New Public Libraries System Model and Information Society Technology in Turkey

Abstract

This study is based on the hypothesis that in Turkey, at the beginning of 2000’s, the most important investment to be made for the future is to increase the functionality of the information network system and thereby, its subsystem, the public library system. This matter bears utmost importance and urgency for Turkey that has a young and dynamic population. The objective of the study is to outline a new public library system model integrated with information technology and to set out main conditions for its realisation. In the study, documentary analysis and systems design methods are employed. In Turkey, an insufficiency on a crisis level in all processes and levels of the public library system is observed, a fact which is caused by various factors. The three elements of the crisis are the “access” to public library system facilities, its “cost” and “quality”. The new public library system model presupposes a decrease in the state’s responsibility for public libraries by sharing this responsibility with the library users. Information society technology is suggested as the medium of the model because it will provide equal opportunities for and democratization of the public library system.