Future of Public Libraries: Opinions of Public Librarians in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze public librarians’ perspectives on the future of public libraries in Turkey.The research is arranged under six headings as follows: the state of overall change in public libraries; services;lifelong learning and information literacy; technology; administration and collection; building, librarian, user and other elements including finance. Every aspect of the study which entails literature review, findings, discussionand conclusion were examined within the scope of these six subjects. A descriptive method of research wasused; the data was collected through an online survey technique that consisted of 62 questions in the form of a three-point Likert scale. Survey questions were also constructed within the frame of the six researchheadings, and the questions in each group were presented in a mixed order. The questionnaire was sentto 481 librarians working in public libraries in Turkey in 2014. Of these 201 librarians responded, and 185 survey answers out of these responses were found to be valid. The response rate was 38.5%. The results show that public librarians in Turkey are optimistic about the survival and development of publiclibraries in the future. According to them, public libraries will undergo significant changes in the sense ofstructural makeup, services, technology and administration by preserving their fundamental composition and functions.