Support local: Public libraries and local authors

Authors

  • Rynnelle Wiebe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/pathfinder40

Keywords:

public libraries, local authors, collection policies, metadata

Abstract

In 2020 we have experienced movements to support local creators, restaurants, and businesses; how can the library community support local authors? This extended abstract discusses research conducted about how public libraries support local authors, with a focus on how these works are included in library collections and made findable to community members. Twelve public libraries from British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan were selected for analysis of collection policies and item metadata. Qualitative content analysis is used to code collection policies, and systemic analysis of item metadata is used to understand methods of identifying locally-authored items. The results of this research indicate that collection policies provide both opportunities and barriers for including locally-authored items and there is a lack of consistent methods for identifying items as locally-authored within item metadata. Some of these barriers can be attributed to the challenge of identifying and defining “local authorship”. This extended abstract will conclude with recommendations for how libraries can modify collection policies and methods of identifying items as locally-authored in order to support local authors and make these items more accessible to the community.

Downloads

Published

2021-04-07

How to Cite

Wiebe, R. (2021). Support local: Public libraries and local authors. Pathfinder: A Canadian Journal for Information Science Students and Early Career Professionals, 2(1), 52–58. https://doi.org/10.29173/pathfinder40

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2021): Proceedings of the 2021 Forum for Information Professionals: Knowledge as Resistance: Kooky Academic Theories in Action

Section

FIP Extended Abstracts

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Rynnelle Wiebe

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors retain all copyright for their work published by Pathfinder. The specific copyright information for each work is included with the work itself. Pathfinder retains the right of first publication. Use and reproduction rights of any articles or abstracts on the Pathfinder website are granted for individual, non-commercial, and educational purposes only, and for electronic materials if properly cited. Otherwise, permission must be obtained from Pathfinder or the authors.

Our full copyright terms can be found in Section 4 of our Author's Agreement.

All other materials are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).