Library Roles in Community Empowerment: A Literature Study

Abstract

This paper is aimed to investigate the social role of libraries in the form of community empowerment. Studies that have been dominant in discussing the existence of libraries as providers of collections for the public to read make this research significant because it attempts to put forward the potential for new study perspectives that can touch the heart of public needs in the social realm. This research departs from the layers of the library pyramid in the form of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. The four layers of the pyramid are used as the existential foundation of libraries in playing their role in society. The library's role has been found in three groups: the role of a public space, an agent of change, and a community developer. The first role is played in the form of increasing the quality of accessibility for discourse development. The second role as an agent of change has paved the way for society to gain equal and broad access, giving birth to an educated society. The accumulation of these roles places libraries in a vital position as community developers. Libraries have encouraged developments in people's lives. Issues of information accessibility, equality, social justice, and social harmony guide libraries through their social functions in society.