Research for CULT Committee: Public Libraries – Their New Role

This research paper was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) and commissioned, supervised and published by the Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies.

In recent years, public libraries (and local authorities) have risen to the challenges born from ongoing social, digital and economic changes. This briefing paper provides a short analysis of the impact that public libraries can have on the intellectual and cultural development of citizens with a particular focus on their vital role in providing an open public space for learning, culture and social communication.

Following on from the analysis, respective recommendations for policy action at EU level are outlined.

This is the compilation of three documents prepared for a workshop of the European Parliament's CULT Committee:

+ The New Role of Public Libraries in Local Communities
+ Promoting Media and Information Literacy in Libraries - + e-Lending: Challenges and Opportunities

• Primary Source

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union: Publications available via the EU Bookshop http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/directorate-general-for-internal-policies-of-the-union-cbf.cKABstF7wAAAEjwYYY4e5K/

European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service: Study, July 2016: Research for CULT Committee: Public Libraries – Their New Role http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/585882/IPOL_STU(2016)585882_EN.pdf

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