DE GRUYTER DOI 10.1515/libri-2013-0024 Libri 2013; 63(4): 295−319 Agnes Mainka, Sarah Hartmann, Lisa Orszullok, Isabella Peters, Anika Stallmann and Wolfgang G. Stock Agnes Mainka et al. Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society: Core Services of Libraries in Informational World Cities Abstract: Informational Cities are the prototypical spaces Dr. Isabella Peters, Member of Research Staff, Department of Infor- of the knowledge society. Public libraries play an impor- mation Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. Email: [email protected] tant role as parts of the digital, smart, knowledge and Anika Stallmann, Member of Research Staff, Department of Informa- creative infrastructures of these Informational Cities. Li- tion Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. Email: braries have economic value as location factors in the two [email protected] spaces of Informational Cities, the physical and the digi- Prof. Dr. Wolfgang G. Stock, Head of the Department of Information tal. For this reason, we divided the library services into Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. Email: [email protected] two main groups, namely the digital library and the physi- cal library. For 31 specified Informational World Cities, Two preliminary versions of this paper were published (Mainka, we empirically analyzed the core services of their public Stallmann, and Orszullok 2012; Orszullok et al. 2012). libraries via content analysis of the libraries’ Web pages. Additionally, we studied these libraries’ social media ac- tivities. Many libraries provide free e-resources (above all, e-books, e-journals and bibliographical databases) to Introduction their customers. Libraries offer digital reference services, mainly via e-mail and Web forms. Their presence in social Researchers have posited that the typical city in knowl- media is dominated by posts on Facebook and Twitter. edge societies is the so-called Informational City, where Nearly all public libraries we analyzed represent attractive flows of information, capital, and power are as or more architectural landmarks in their region. Besides offering important than physical spaces (Castells 1989; Stock spaces for children, the libraries provide rooms for learn- 2011a). What roles do public libraries play in such cities of ing and getting together and, to a lesser degree, modular the knowledge era? What are the core services of those li- working spaces. Most libraries provide Wi-Fi inside their braries? In an empirical investigation, we analyzed librar- buildings; more than half of those we investigated work ies from 31 Informational World Cities. with RFID technology. The prototypical public library in Besides our theoretical considerations on prototypical the knowledge society has two core services: (1) to sup- cities of the knowledge society (Stock 2011a, 2011b, 2011c; port citizens, companies and administrations in their city Khveshchanka and Mainka 2011; Linde and Stock 2011; and region with digital services, namely e-resources as Mainka, Khveshchanka, and Stock 2011), empirical results well as reference services, and to communicate with their are available concerning the nature of Informational Cit- customers via social media; and (2) to provide physical ies, e.g. on measuring Informational World Cities’ degree spaces for meeting, learning and working, as well as areas of ‘cityness’ (Nowag, Perez, and Stuckmann 2011), on job for children and other groups, in a building that is a land- polarization in Informational Cities (Dornstädter, Fin- mark of the city. kelmeyer, and Shanmuganathan 2011), about Singapore as a prototype of an Informational City (Khveshchanka, Mainka, and Peters 2011), on digital libraries in selected Agnes Mainka, Member of Research Staff, Department of Informati- Informational Cities (Mainka and Khveshchanka 2012) on Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. Email: and on the role of physical and digital libraries in Infor- [email protected] mational World Cities (Mainka, Stallmann, and Orszullok Sarah Hartmann, Member of Research Staff, Department of Infor- 2012; Orszullok et al. 2012). mation Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. In our theoretical framework (Mainka, Khveshchan- Email: [email protected] Lisa Orszullok, Member of Research Staff, Department of Informati- ka, and Stock 2011), we use six groups of indicators to de- on Science, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany. Email: termine an Informational World City. These indicators are [email protected] interlinked: Bereitgestellt von | Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf Angemeldet | 134.99.106.115 Heruntergeladen am | 29.11.13 11:53 296 Agnes Mainka et al., Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society DE GRUYTER Figure 1: Infrastructures of an Informational World City – Infrastructures (groundwork for digital cities, Informational World Cities knowledge cities, creative cities and smart cities) (see Figure 1), At the beginning of our Informational City research, we – Cityness: Position in the World City hierarchy, were obliged to identify potential Informational World Cit- – Structure of the labour market (including job polari- ies. An Informational World City links different aspects zation and share of information professionals on the of modern cities in the knowledge society (Figure 1). First overall labour market), of all, an Informational World City has to be a World City – Mix of companies, as described by the framework of Friedmann (1995), Sas- – Political willingness to establish an Informational sen (2001), or Taylor (2004), where it is defined by its de- City (including the maturity of e-government), gree of ‘cityness.’ Population numbers by themselves do – Soft location factors (e.g., leisure facilities, shopping not make a World City. Next, World Cities have to provide malls, “architainment”). important infrastructures for information and communi- cation technology (ICT) as they are given in a digital city In this paper, we concentrate mainly on the aspects of “In- (Yigitcanlar and Han 2010), also called a “ubiquitous city” frastructures” and “Soft Location Factors.” The research (Hwang 2009). A smart city (Shapiro 2006; Hollands 2008) literature emphasizes the idea that “the public library is refers to a “green” city with a high quality of life. A knowl- a community resource in most major cities” (Robertson edge city (Ergazakis, Metaxiotis, and Psarras 2004) con- 2000, 246). In line with this statement, we try to answer sists of diverse knowledge institutions such as universities the following research question: Which core library ser- and science parks. A creative city (Landry 2000; Florida vices are provided in typical cities of the knowledge so- 2005) offers infrastructures for the creative class. Moreo- ciety? ver, the economic success of a World City correlates posi- tively with an enhanced human capital (Glaeser, Scheink- man, and Shleifer 1995). Accordingly, a city must meet Bereitgestellt von | Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf Angemeldet | 134.99.106.115 Heruntergeladen am | 29.11.13 11:53 DE GRUYTER Agnes Mainka et al., Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society 297 Table 1: Informational World Cities. (Note : applicable , not applicable ) the needs of the knowledge society and build important ence®, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Wiley Online Library. infrastructures in order to be able to compete with other As listed in Table 1, we found 126 references to a total of World Cities. 31 cities described as Informational World Cities. These How can we defi ne an Informational World City? It cities refl ect global centres distributed all over the world must meet two conditions. Firstly, a city has to be referred (Figure 2). to as a World City in the literature, and secondly, it must be referred to as a digital, smart, knowledge, or creative city (at least one precondition must be fulfi lled). To fi nd candidate cities, we analyzed literature in Web of Sci- Bereitgestellt von | Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf Angemeldet | 134.99.106.115 Heruntergeladen am | 29.11.13 11:53 298 Agnes Mainka et al., Public Libraries in the Knowledge Society DE GRUYTER Figure 2: Informational World Cities on the World Map. (Note: cf. numbers in Table 1) The Economic Value of Public price, transport connections, etc.), soft location factors play a role in attracting and binding companies (e.g. eco- Libraries in the Knowledge Society nomic climate, city image, innovative milieu) and for en- ticing people to live and work in the city (e.g. accommoda- There are many studies on the economic value of librar- tion, schools, leisure facilities, culture) (Umlauf 2008, 10). ies in general (e.g., Poll 2003; McCallum and Quinn 2004; Libraries were regarded as part of the soft location factor Missingham 2005) and of public libraries in particular of culture. Additionally, (physical) libraries acted as traffic (e.g., Koontz 1992; Morris, Sumsion, and Hawkins 2002; generators for retail (and vice versa) (Umlauf 2008) – but Aabø 2005; Ferreira dos Santos 2009; Ko et al. 2012; Sax- only if they had an attractive location. For some econo- ena and McDougall 2012). Public libraries satisfy “the mists, culture does not have the same importance as hard needs of citizens, small businesses, entrepreneurs and location factors. But since empirical investigations into lo- the community’s organisations and institutions” (Fer- cation factors were conducted in the 1980s, it has become reira dos Santos 2009, 1). In contrast to large companies