The public library as institutional capital

Abstract

Much has been written about measuring the contribution of public libraries to society. Using a transformative paradigm, this article addresses the development of measures with regard to the public libraries’ role in fostering social inclusion and alleviating poverty in South Africa. The approach taken is based on Sachs’s notion of capital endowments. It employs a thematic analysis of the literature and easily sourced statistics to show how to describe the status of a selected site, and a heat map to show the results. This planning tool could be of use in garnering government and public support for the key role played by libraries.

Keywords

public libraries institutional capital social inclusion poverty eradication multi-criterion dashboards South Africa ‘heat maps’

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