Empowering Rural Public Library Users Towards Sustainable Community Development Goal.

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of international targets that were developed in 2015 by the United Nations. These goals aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity among human kind for all by the year 2030. They are divided into 17 goals and 169 targets that cover all aspects of life – including education, health care, housing, food, energy and climate, peace and justice, governance and sustainable economic growth. Plus, to ensure peace and prosperity. Empowerment is very important element for a community to become developed and to sustain the development. To be able to have self-empowerment, one must first have a sense of self-help and self-determination. Self-help and self-determination are related to the idea that helping one’s self will create collaboration and improve one’s quality of life (Christenson, 1989). Power in community development refers to the ability to influence change rather than the power to exploit or dominate others, it is an action of choice. This paper introduces Rural Community Learning Network (RCLN) Traits Model which offers a helpful insight for rural communities to value and support rural public library as community sustainable development center. This model was develop using qualitative approach through interviews with the rural public libraries’ staffs, users and non-users, observations, and examinations of documents. Thematic analysis has been used to identify the empowerment sustainability characters for the traits model. This study concluded that rural public libraries in Malaysia had not fully implemented the empowerment elements which is identified as an important element in rural libraries and community development.