Citizen Participation, Controversial Social Issues, and the Information Services of Public Libraries: the Perspective of Librarians in Taiwan

Citizen Participation, Controversial Social Issues, and the Information Services of Public Libraries: the Perspective of Librarians in Taiwan

Taiwan have experienced a lot of protests initiated by citizens including the demonstration and sit-in concerning various controversial social issues in recent years. Among the debates of different social controversial issues, most citizens obtain relevant information through news and social media. Nevertheless, are public libraries, an important source of information in the civil society, able to provide the general public with the information concerning them? We have conducted a survey research to the public libraries in the capital city Taipei and its satellite city, New Taipei City. 201 questionnaires have been distributed to the librarians in 107 libraries who responsible for conducting outreach activities, assessing their perceptions and attitudes about providing relevant information regarding controversial social issues among the public. The results showed, librarians agreed that it is the responsibility and obligation of public libraries to provide information and resources to citizens, and that citizens have the freedom of rights to obtain various types of information. The librarians generally agree that public libraries should organize outreach activities related to current controversial issues. Although issues regarding political orientation, public policies, ethics, and media freedom were considered controversial social issues by most of the participants, they felt these issues would not be appropriate for integrated into outreach activities of public library. This research is an exploratory and emergent study in the Taiwanese society. The preliminary research results can only serve as a reference to what kind of information provider public libraries can be in the course of the development in a civil society.