The Role of the Rural Public Library in Community Development and Empowerment

Abu, Roziya; Grace, Marty; Carroll, Mary R.

doi:10.18848/1447-9516/cgp/v08i02/36863

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…A rural library exists to care for the rural dwellers' informational, educational, and recreational needs. Rural libraries can become more relevant in the lives of rural communities by providing cultural resources and by carrying out more social and cultural functions (Abu, Grace & Carroll, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reading interest and reading pattern of rural library users in a low literacy rate area

et al. 2020

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The rural library generates knowledgeable and up-to-date communities through the inculcation of positive lifestyles. The purpose of the study is to investigate reading interest and reading patterns among rural communities in the low literacy rate areas in Malaysia. The quantitative study employs a multi-stage cluster and simple random sampling, whereby 400 respondents from 16 rural libraries at Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, and Kelantan were selected. This investigation shows that rural library users interested in the reading activity. Most of the users are female, read 2 to 5 books in a week, and prefer to read printed materials in Malay. There is no significant difference in reading interest and gender. Findings suggested that more library needs to be established in rural areas to foster reading culture. Librarians and community leaders play a role in promoting library facilities for the community. More research needs to be conducted to assess the impact of the rural library on the community, especially in the low literacy rate areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reading interest and reading pattern of rural library users in a low literacy rate area

et al. 2020

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“…Although public libraries are responsible for creating community awareness (Abu et al, 2011; Begum et al, 2022; Binks et al, 2014; Scott, 2011), the participating libraries only arranged programmes to create public consciousness of mass education, civil rights and legal aid. Only one library considered health, hygiene and drug abuse to be community awareness programmes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community engagement of public libraries for ensuring tribal women’s health literacy in Bangladesh

Yesmin,

Abdul Karim,

Atikuzzaman

2023

IFLA Journal

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Public libraries can play dual roles as knowledge centres and community hubs for societies. They can provide easy ways to reach out to the community by engaging the community through a number of initiatives, including health literacy. The main aim of this study is to investigate public libraries’ responses and willingness in providing health information services to tribal communities. Data was collected from 11 library professionals using a structured interview method and 276 tribal women through a survey. The data was then analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings show that most of the participating libraries (72.8%) did not provide any specific service for tribal-community engagement, although all of them were very positive in initiating it. On the other hand, the majority of the tribal women were interested in getting health-related information from public libraries. ‘Community engagement for health literacy’ could be a new formula for tribal communities in this regard.

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“…In the context of Malaysia, rural libraries need to be sustained in the community due to its role of providing information to the rural community, fulfil lifelong learning efforts, social and cultural role among the community (Omar et al, 2014). Many related studies conducted by multiple researchers ( Roziya et al, 2011;Omar et al, 2014;Shaifuddin, Ahmad, & Mokhtar, 2011), have proven that rural libraries have great potential to continuously enhance the knowledge of rural community. For rural community, sustainability is bigger than just environmental issues and support, in fact it is about empowerment -economically, socially and personally.…”

Section: Malaysia Rural Public Library Sustainability Planmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowering Rural Public Library Users Towards Sustainable Community Development Goal.

Abu,

Rafie,

Sha'ari

2023

ECKM

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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.

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The Role of the Rural Public Library in Community Development and Empowerment

Cited by 14 publications

References 7 publications

Reading interest and reading pattern of rural library users in a low literacy rate area

Reading interest and reading pattern of rural library users in a low literacy rate area

Community engagement of public libraries for ensuring tribal women’s health literacy in Bangladesh

Empowering Rural Public Library Users Towards Sustainable Community Development Goal.

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