Investigating Places: Libraries as Public Spaces – Toronto Reference Library

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Investigating Places: Libraries as Public Spaces – Toronto Reference Library
Public spaces are an important aspect of a society. Yet the power of public spaces as well as its number is diminishing. Economic changes such as privatization and de-regulation is transforming public space from public institutions into operations ran on market-centered basis. This paper will examine the Toronto Reference Library as one such public space. It will examine its role and function within the society as well as how the space was created to serve these roles and functions. First and foremost libraries serve as repositories of accessible information and knowledge. However, in our society at present, the Internet serves a similar function, and it can be...

.....e social purposes, the information-providing purposes, and the cultural purposes of the institution. Each community has defined its priorities in specific ways, often based on the funding that the governed are willing to provide” (Marcum 194).
Works Cited
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, J. E. Dismantling the Public Sphere: Situating and Sustaining Librarianship in the Age of the New Public Philosophy. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003.
Internet Use. "Community Practice in the Network Society: Local Action, Global Interaction”. Ed. P. Day and D. Schuler. New York:
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Marcum, D. B. "Redefining Community through the Public Library."
Daedalus 125.4 (1996): 191-195.