‘I Only Hate Broccoli’: The Library as Place in 21st Century America

Wayne A. Wiegand

doi:10.4275/KSLIS.2010.44.4.061

‘I Only Hate Broccoli’: The Library as Place in 21st Century America

Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
2010, 44(4), pp.61~74
DOI : 10.4275/KSLIS.2010.44.4.061
Publisher : 한국문헌정보학회
Research Area : Interdisciplinary Studies > Library and Information Science
Received : September 5, 2010
Accepted : October 6, 2010

Wayne A. Wiegand ¹

¹Florida State University

Accredited

ABSTRACT

By taking a bottom-up “library in the life of the user” perspective rather than a top-down “user in the life of the library” perspective, this paper uses anecdotal evidence from the past and near present to examine the multiple roles the U.S. public library plays and has played as public space in the everyday lives of its patrons. By harnessing “public sphere ” theory discussed in Jürgen Habermas’s THE STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE (1989) and by the examining the rich literatures on civic life and institutions that have evolved from it, the author argues that Library and Information Studies discourse has to expand its scope to include research and analysis of “library as place” from a user’s perspective if it hopes to develop a deeper understanding of what the public library does for means to members of the communities in which they reside.

KEYWORDS

Library as Place, Public Libraries, USA, Library History, Public Sphere

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* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

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Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 1.37

‘I Only Hate Broccoli’: The Library as Place in 21st Century America

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Journal Copyright Policy

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 1.37

‘I Only Hate Broccoli’: The Library as Place in 21st Century America

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

Journal Copyright Policy

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