The Public Parallel: Understanding Sociocultural Influences in the Rise and Fall of the Baroda Public Library System

Reference Type Thesis
Year of Publication
2010
Contributors Author: Devon C. Lee
Number of Pages
80 pp.
Language
University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Thesis Type
Master's Thesis
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Library Type
Chronological Period
Abstract
The current challenges faced in the field of librarianship within India may stem from the dearth of scholarship relating to sociocultural and socioeconomic factors in the historical development of libraries. This paper seeks to examine social aspects of information authority and transmission within India's history as a way of contextualizing the environment in which the first public library movement in India took shape. Attention then turns to an in depth examination of the Baroda public library movement; its impetus, growth, challenges, and eventual decline are analyzed in light of existing social systems and changes. The results suggest that sociocultural factors may have played a greater part in the movement's failure than previously considered. Such findings have critical implications in the future development of libraries within India and further studies of this nature may assist library professionals in reducing the social marginalization of libraries in India by aligning library missions and services with social aims and norms.