This research examines the library as one node within a city's governmental and reading infrastructures; a visible part of the local municipal authority as well as a site that promotes reading and literacy. In this research, the library is understood as a dispositif, an arrangement of multiple devices that influence behaviours around reading and public conduct. Liberal governmentality, as theorised by scholars such as Foucault, Joyce, Rose and Otter, is used to explore the way the library and librarians manage a free public and encourage desirable behaviours related to reading, learning and sociality. Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus are used to examine the reading tastes and lives of a diverse group of library users. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with librarians and library users. Additional analysis of reports, profiles and guidelines as devices in the construction of the library and librarianship was undertaken. The librarians, documents, policies and spaces of the library were seen as components of the library dispositif, each of which held a different role in the creation of the library as a municipal institution embedded within broader reading networks. The research focused on three libraries located in socio-economically and demographically diverse regions in Sydney: Whitlam Library is situated in Cabramatta, an area with a low socio-economic profile and a high migrant population, Narellan Library is in a rapidly growing outer suburban area, and Lane Cove Library is in an area with a well-educated and relatively wealthy population. The examination of these three libraries reveals the ways in which different libraries organise, manage and order their collection, and design and arrange interior spaces. This research is about the influences that bear upon public libraries, shaping collections and spaces: professional organisations, legislation, council authorities, and other private actors such as book retailers and library supply companies. It is also about how public libraries function as spaces that organise reading and readers, catering to different types, tastes and reasons for reading.
Date of Award | 2016 |
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Original language | English |
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- public libraries
- reading
- culture
- literacy
- social capital (sociology)
- Sydney (N.S.W.)
Reading infrastructures in the contemporary city : a study of three public libraries in Sydney
Sherman, J. (Author). 2016
Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis