The people's network

Abstract

This article explores perceptions of Internet access in UK public libraries within government policy, by librarians, and by library users, in the broader context of government/citizen intermediation. Predominantly theoretical, it focuses upon how discourses of self-education and empowerment have come to position Internet access within this domain in different ways. Public libraries are significant here because: (1) within policy circles, public libraries are positioned as key informational intermediaries between government and citizen; (2) they offer an opportunity to explore the role and experience of ‘traditional’ institutions incorporating Internet access (as opposed to ‘new’ institutions such as the cyber-café and e-gateway); and (3) perceptions of Internet access within public libraries have been under-explored within theoretically driven sociology. An illustrative case involving documentary analysis and interviews with librarians and library users is drawn on to question the technicist image of future domestic governance and citizenship in policy on access and intermediation. The article highlights emerging conjunctions and disjunctions between (1) government policy; (2) library-institutional discourses, interests and strategies; and (3) the everyday practices of citizens, in the context of such access. Utilizing theoretical insights from STS and cultural theory, the article stresses that ‘tensions’ between the different interested constituencies involved (government; libraries; library users) problematize any simple notions of a ‘unitary Internet’ and raise some theoretical and empirical questions regarding the current conceptualization of intermediation within policy on public Internet access.

Keywords:

• public libraries
• intermediaries
• self-education
• empowerment
• Internet
• citizenship

Acknowledgement

The research for this article was carried out as one element within an ESRC-funded PhD research project (see Hand 2003). Thanks are offered to Barry Sandywell, Dale Southerton and Elizabeth Shove for helpful comments regarding earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1 See also the Green Papers prepared for the European Commission: Europe: An Information Society for All, December 1997a, Lisbon; ‘Green Paper on the Convergence of the Telecommunications, Media, and Information Technology Sectors, and the Implications for Regulation towards an Information Society Approach, December 1997, Brussels.

2 See White Paper: Modernising Government, Central IT Unit, Cabinet Office, March 1999; Project Definition Statement, G7 Government Online Project, Brussels. For a critique of this policy position, see Liff et al. 2002, in Woolgar (ed.) 2002, pp. 78–98.

3 See ‘Building on Success: An Action Plan for Libraries’, Draft for Consultation, Resource.

4 At the time of writing, approximately 2900 of these have been completed.

5 See for example the website for UKOnline at: http://www.ukonline. gov.uk.

6 See the Appendix for additional detail on interviewing.

7 This table should not imply a simple movement from one set of cultural values and practices to the other. Rather, these can be said to coexist in the library. This is important for considering how new technologies may be ‘culturally’ rather than ‘technically’ defined.

8 The first so-called ‘cyberspatial’ public library was Croydon Central Library, refurbished in 1993, providing a public access CD-ROM network, PCs, Internet access, email access, and a networking of electronic services in schools and other libraries (Kirby 1997).

9 Similarly, Alistair Black and Melvyn Crann observed how some library users perceived ‘public libraries becoming more like community information centres, while bookshops were becoming more like libraries’. Mass Observation Analysis, The Public Library, 02349, B2728, S2207, A1706.

10 Of course, the distinction between communication and information is problematic. A distinction is drawn here to emphasize how different constituencies are constructing the dichotomy in this particular context. For example, information is often positioned in terms of retrieval and communication in terms of sending, and subsequently mapped onto conceptions of learning and leisure respectively. How these rhetorical distinctions inform practice requires further research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Hand

Martin Hand is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Queen's University, Ontario. His principal areas of research are digital technology, Internet culture and politics, domestic cultures of technology, consumption and cultural theory. His current research develops theoretical frameworks for analysing aspects of digital photography in Canadian society.