Social capital and the multiethnic challenge: The role of the public library

Abstract

The paper talks about the social capital in the form of civic values as generalized trust and norms of reciprocity. What it does mean is that the level of social trust varies between countries and within countries. The author says that the role of the library in creating social capital has not been given great attention in the literature, and its role in generating trust between ethnic groups has been even less studied. According to author the sources of social capital are in contention between a society-centered perspective and an institution-centered perspective. The public library as a service institution in the local community focuses its activity on fulfilling the expressed needs of the end-user of public services and providing the same service. Lastly this paper says that most studies of public libraries and social capital have concluded that the core services were most important in the creation of social capital.