Readiness of Public Libraries in Developing a Financial Literate Individual

Abstract

Financial literacy (FL) is an important ability needed by any individual to understand, evaluate, and communicate business and financial information. Having accurate financial information increases one’s competency to be financial literate. It is regarded as a common and basic life skill that libraries can develop for their users. Using purposive sampling, this study ponders into the status and challenges of eight public city libraries in the Philippines in terms of providing FL education and how they can potentially share a role in developing the economy of a country. Public libraries’ readiness to serve their users can be observed in terms of their collection, web presence, services, and programs. The level of financial knowledge and competencies of city librarians were also assessed. A look into the available professional development programs for public librarians in business and finance librarianship was reviewed.

Keywords:

• Business information
• competencies
• financial information
• financial literacy
• information literacy
• personal finance
• Philippines
• Public libraries

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.