Public library as a place and breeding ground of social capital: A case of Singang Library

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the perceived outcomes and societal value of public libraries, particularly from the perspective of Singang Library, Taiwan. Survey questionnaires were distributed to Singang Library users, and 387 valid responses were analyzed. The result shows that Singang Library users benefit from library services in 22 areas of daily life, which were collapsed through factor analysis into four major outcome types: daily life information, cultural activities, work related, and reading and learning. For analysis of how users use the library as a meeting place, this study shows that Singang Library is used as five different types of meeting place: square, a place for meeting diverse people, public sphere, joint activities and meta-meeting place. Singang Library as a meeting place contributes to breed bridging social capital among users’ network, especially when the library is used as a low intensive meeting place. There are also bonding social capital characteristics among users who visit with their families. This paper also describes the relationship among library use frequency, perceived outcomes, library as a meeting place, and social capital, and the result indicates that the four variables are positively correlated.