SHORT Croatia ARTICLESI n Service of Their Aleksandra Horvat FROM Communities: CLOSED Public Libraries DOORS Today TO OPEN GATES August Cesarec Library in Zagreb Introduction A new bibliobus - the Zagreb It is no doubt a truism to say that public libra- City Libraries ries are societal institutions that genuinely mir- ror the society in which they have been set up. In spite of the fact that they are normally es- tablished and funded by the local communi- ties, their activities reflect the broader policies of a particular society towards its citizens. The contemporary society in which public libraries act today has been characterized by specific, highly prominent traits, which strongly influ- ence the libraries' activities and have to be ta- ken into account in any discussion on libraries. Some of these distinctive traits are: Globalization - a series of norms developed at the transnational level crossing the borders of individual countries and striving to overcome the present technical, geographical and politi- cal obstacles to the free movement of people 76 www Uncommon Culture The new library strategy should be the planning and development of services for non-users. Non-users represent a large category of the population and libraries should be interested in learning the reason for their abstinence and goods. Several of those transnational have to confront before; for the citizens this norms have already been widely accepted, means that they have to learn to live with dif- such as respect for human rights, democracy ferent people and become more tolerant of and "good governance". Those norms have different cultures. Migration has significant become even more important than the ones consequences for libraries, since they have to imposed by the national governments. The go- take into account the demographic changes in vernments change the national legislation in their communities and adapt their services to order to harmonize their business and com- the changed needs of different users. merce norms and remove the barriers to bu- The Internet has irrevocably marked the society siness and trade. Globalization has an impact of today. Its influence as a powerful informa- on culture, too. The creation of Europeana, tion and communication tool has been enor- the digital library intended to display the rich mous in almost every sector of life. Its ap- cultural heritage of Europe, is a clear example pearance has helped diminish inequality of globalization in culture. The idea that all among citizens by allowing them to access all people should have equal right to access in- kinds of information and control political formation is a global norm accepted by many decisions. Social networks, quite a recent libraries throughout the world. phenomenon, allow every individual to estab- Migration is a contemporary fact of life; a great lish informal channels of communication and number of individuals are constantly on the voice her/his opinion freely. Libraries provide move, in search of better employment, safer free access to the Internet for the public and life conditions, and quality education. In each join social networks where they advertise their country there are foreigners who came to stay services and display their holdings, hoping to for a short period of time or permanently. For increase the number of users. Nevertheless the politicians this means that they have to they have to watch carefully the recent events make decisions on new issues they did not concerning the Internet, since they will almost The City Library the demographic certainly have an impact on them too. in Pula - the interior Today the Internet is used by more than 2 bil- lion people in the world1 . It appears to be free and accessible to everyone. However, there are obstacles to its use: in the first place the ab- sence of the necessary infrastructure for Inter- net accessibility in many parts of the world. The so-called information gap between the North and the South has been a topic of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005. The representatives of IF- LA, the highest professional authority for libraries and librarians, took part at the WSIS together with other NGOs, trying to persuade the decision makers to do what is in their po- wer to reduce the information gap. The re- commendation finally adopted at the WSIS was that individual countries should develop and adopt national strategies for the deve- wwwww 77 Uncommon Culture SHORT ARTICLES FROM CLOSED Zagreb Digitized Heritage: Mala zorna obuka. Zagreb 1903. Digitised by Zagreb City Libraries, 2008. www.kgzdzb.arhivpro.hr/index.php?doctype=2&docid=301003973&vrstadok=3 DOORS TO OPEN lopment of the information society. Internet access and content have also been controlled in many countries, although this is GATES not always apparent. The trends to control the Internet have their origins in specific national cultures, traditions and customs. Certain con- tent is not considered acceptable in certain parts of the world2 . The present national legis- lation concerning the Internet differs in diffe- rent countries. Many governments wish to protect the children as a particularly sensitive category of population; others are concerned about the privacy of their citizens, national se- curity issues or protection of copyright. Some- times Internet content is simply not conside- red decent and is prohibited by national law. Hate speech and pornography are examples of such content. Sometimes Internet content is blocked simply to prevent malicious content, spam or viruses. Measures such as filtering or blocking of the content, addresses or websites an Internet connection at home. In Croatia, are taken by different stakeholders, govern- for instance, about one and a half million ments, local authorities, companies and insti- people cannot access the Internet from home, tutions or individuals. The OpenNet Initiative and libraries have been very successful in at- identifies the cases of filtering and surveillance tracting new users who need access. Therefo- of the Internet3 and reports on them. Accor- re, libraries should exercise caution when a de- ding to the OpenNet initiative a number of cision on introducing filtering is to be taken. countries which block certain Internet content Is access to the Internet an individual right? has been on the increase since 2000. In 2008 The answer to this question is important for the European Union commissioned a study on libraries. Lately, there have been serious at- new filtering technologies in order to learn tempts to limit access, such as the introduction how to efficiently remove the illegal content. of the HADOPI legislation in France, or Blacklists of unwanted content, such as the adoption of the so-called three-strikes legisla- one mounted by the Internet Watch Founda- tion in the English speaking countries. In tion in Great Britain, are available. Programs Great Britain Digital Economy Act adopted in such as The Safer Internet4 strive to gather all 2009 requires Internet providers to control the stakeholders interested in protecting children users and prevent those who illegally down- from harmful or illegal Internet content. load music and films from accessing the Inter- When considering the introduction of filte- net. On the other hand, in some countries such ring, libraries should bear in mind that filtering as Estonia or Greece, access to the Internet is is still an imperfect technique that sometimes officially considered to be a citizen's right. The blocks quite innocuous and useful content. It United Nations has recently warned govern- is also important to keep in mind that libraries ments and the private sector to refrain from provide access to the persons who do not have restricting the flow of information on the 78 anInternet Internet Uncommon Culture Internet6 . In Croatia, librarians have not been Public library services involved in the discussions on the future of In a constantly changing and globalized envi- the Internet and the new legislation, and filte- ronment, heavily influenced by information ring has been introduced in some school libra- and communication technologies, what can ries, without any wider public debate. public libraries do to remain pertinent to their www 79 Uncommon Culture SHORT ARTICLES FROM CLOSED DOORS TO OPEN communities? Is society still interested in keeping them as instruments of the wider na- tional policy towards its population? The ans- GATES wer is probably positive, but changes in the overall functioning of libraries seem to be im- minent and inescapable. For the last twenty years the public library has been described in various IFLA, UNESCO and Council of Europe documents as an edu- cational, cultural and information institution. It has also been seen as a public access point to the Internet where free Internet access is pro- vided for those who cannot afford it at home, and as a forum or a meeting place of its com- munity7 . community, most often by civil society orga- In 2000 the Lisbon Strategy, an important nizations, but also by companies and other in- document for the development of the EU, cal- stitutions in the community. Libraries have led for social and environmental renewal. The been encouraged to become involved in va- fight against poverty and social exclusion was rious programmes aimed at specific groups of to become a part of the national politics of the population. A good example of recent in- member countries. As a result it was expected volvement of libraries has been the CILIP Lib- from libraries that they empower their local raries change lives award. The recipients of the communities and promote equality, diversity, award have been libraries that provided prog- and identity in the community. The term social rammes tailored for persons with special inclusion (or exclusion) had become relevant needs, members of minority groups, autistic for the society and consequently for libraries. children, and bibliotherapy.