As libraries work to define their roles within the global financial literacy education movement, it will serve them well to understand the popular literary component to this movement: the personal finance self-help genre. In this literature study, the author read 12 of the most popular books of this genre, as determined by simulations of likely Google searches, and conveys herein some of the beliefs and strategies these books may have imparted to library patrons. This study will benefit librarians by enhancing their understanding of the personal finance genre, conveying the genre’s interrelation to the current financial literacy movement, and even prompting librarians to question their own understanding regarding certain financial literacy components.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the entrepreneurship resources patrons can discover and/or access on the web pages of the largest 46 US public libraries to assess the strength of public libraries’ current support to their entrepreneur-patrons, and where, and by what means, public libraries may wish to expand, or further promote, their support.
Design/methodology/approach
The author completed a website analysis of the largest 46 US public libraries, as defined by the criteria in the ALA publication The Nation’s Largest Public Libraries. Website analysis was completed via a standardized checklist assessment of each library website.
Findings
Public libraries often have print and electronic resources, meeting spaces and programming that could be of use to entrepreneur-patrons, but these resources are sometimes difficult to discover on library websites. Libraries have strong partnering relationships with other government and nonprofit organizations, but they may wish to expand these partnerships further.
Practical implications
Public libraries in the US often have multiple support services to offer entrepreneur-patrons. However, if libraries would like to reach entrepreneur-patrons beyond their walls, as well as within them, they may wish to consider further refining the resources both accessible via their website and promoted on it.
Originality/value
While there are research articles exploring how both academic and public libraries support entrepreneur-patrons, as yet, there has been no in-depth research into how public libraries support their entrepreneur-patrons through not only their in-library offerings but also the materials highlighted and/or available via their website. This research addresses this gap in the literature.
It is essential that librarians providing financial literacy programming understand how their programming ties in with the available personal finance literature. Consequently, this article intends to explore the interplay between the differing audiences, content and goals addressed by the popular personal finance genre and financial literacy library programming respectively. The author will explore how library programming and the most popular financial literacy resources compare and contrast, and address how overlap, and the surprising degree of separation between these mediums, will impact the financial literacy education accessible to various demographic groups and the role library programming may play in the movement to come.
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