Co-creating Public Library Futures: An Emergent Manifesto and Participatory Research Agenda

ABSTRACT

Public libraries occupy a highly visible and promissory role for how individuals and communities learn, interact and share with one another. Yet libraries are increasingly underfunded, decried as outdated or irrelevant, or swept up in neoliberal agendas and financialised logics. Combined, these threaten the public library as an indispensable site for community collection and re-collection. Inspired by previous library-focused position statements, a workshop, and subsequent experimental writing exercise, we offer our own manifesto for co-creating public library futures. In this, we seek to unpack the tensions that encircle public libraries and seek to chip away at their physical, digital and social infrastructure. Due to the way in which public libraries can co-create multiple possibilities, we argue that this manifesto be used to inform future participatory research agendas. The key message is hopeful, yet pragmatic: co-creating public library futures can support social justice efforts yet requires ongoing vigilance and new forms of institutional and societal investment.

KEYWORDS:

• Public library
• technology
• social justice
• infrastructure
• futures
• manifesto

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a University of Western Sydney seed grant.

Notes on contributors

Teresa Swist

Teresa Swist researches participatory methodologies and emerging technologies focused on systemic design and collective learning. She is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Education Futures Studio (University of Sydney) and Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Culture and Society (Western Sydney University). Her transdisciplinary research explores the complexity of knowing, making and caring in the digital age. Teresa has extensive experience in theory-building, framework development, and participatory methodologies that advance imaginative possibilities and inclusive practices with people of diverse ages, backgrounds, and expertise. Her social-ecological systems perspective helps to examine how wellbeing and innovation co-evolve across personal, public, and planetary contexts. Teresa's research highlights how situated ethics, creativity, and knowledge sharing can shape more equitable and sustainable futures in an age of rapid technological convergence. Her writing has been published in New Media & Society, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, and Journal of Youth Studies.

Rachel Hendery

Rachel Hendery is Associate Professor of Digital Humanities in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. She is passionate about building relationships between academia and broader publics, with a history of research and engagement around hackathons, museums, and school engagement. A linguist by training, she has a number of research projects that combine digital platforms and co-research with community members, in particular projects relating to language, data visualisation, mapping, simulation, and virtual reality.

Liam Magee

Liam Magee is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. His research focusses on automation and applications of AI, digital games and simulation, urban development and sustainability, and social research methods and indicators. Liam is currently a Chief Investigator on three Australian Research Council projects. Autonomy, Diversity and Disability explores how diverse communities use advanced technologies such as AI in everyday life. The Geopolitics of Automation seeks to understand how automation changes labour conditions and modifies geopolitical tensions. To Map and Enhance Australian Musical Improvisation combines computational and qualitative methods to understanding the history and development of jazz cultural networks. He has also worked on projects concerned with data governance, privacy, future workforce capacities, cultural infrastructure, and online program evaluation. Liam is the Director of Engagement at the Institute for Culture and Society, and co-leads the Intergener8 Living Lab at Western Sydney University. He is the author of Interwoven Cities (2016), and has contributed publications to Big Data & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Environment and Planning C, Geoforum, Local Environment and Information Technology & People.

Jason Ensor

Jason Ensor is Associate Director, Data Planning & Change, Competitive Intelligence & Analytics, where he leads the provision and ongoing development of high quality information for Western Sydney University's decision-makers. An Australian historian and digital humanities scholar by trade, prior to this Jason was the Library User Experience Manager at the Western Sydney University Library where he provided senior-level advice to the planning, development and delivery of quality digital services in support of the University's teaching and research programs across eight campus libraries.

Jen Sherman

Jen Sherman is an urban and cultural geographer whose doctoral research focused on public libraries and reading infrastructures. Her current research interests include food systems and food geographies, and she channels that interest informally as a stay-at-home parent, feeding her children almost constantly.

Kylie Budge

Kylie Budge researches communication and cultural practices in relation to art and design. She is an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and has previously worked in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) sector. Kylie has published in a range of journals, books, blogs, and other online media. Her new book, Art After Instagram (2022, Routledge), explores the effects of Instagram on the making and viewing of art.

Justine Humphry

Justine Humphry is Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on marginalised media use and the consequences of smart, mobile and data-driven platforms in everyday life. She has collaborated on projects on mobile apps and antiracism, smart homes, intelligent voice assistants, smart cities and mobile robots. She is the Chief Investigator of the eSafety project investigating emerging online issues with young people. Her book: Precariously Connected: homelessness and mobile communication will be published by Palgra.