Why Libraries Matter in the New Diplomacy Era?

Abstract

Libraries, museums, and cultural centers have long been widely advocated for diplomacy as an enabler for knowledge sharing, cultural exchange, and scientific cooperation, advancing people-to-people ties and mutual understanding in the international system (Mariano and Vårheim, 2021). In spite of the contribution of libraries as a public sphere institution (Vårheim, Skare, and Lenstra, 2019), a memory institution for historical accounts and artifacts and cultural heritage (Luke and Kersel, 2013; Rubin, 2016), and social meeting place to promote multicultural societies (Aabø, Audunson, and Vårheim, 2010), libraries are still facing 21st - century uncertainties and challenges such as but not limited to the information and cultural crisis in the new cold war period, and the rampant spread of information disorder and infodemic crisis (Jankowicz, 2020; Stengel, 2019). Libraries and diplomacy are more crucial than ever to advance global solutions that no single country and group of nations and organizations can solve.