The Library as Promoter of Democracy
Analysis of Demographic Study by Composite Index Method
Keywords:
Library Democracy Index (ILD), Composite Index, Libraries, Democracy, Social Inclusion, Social ImpactAbstract
In our study, we investigated the results of a demographic survey conducted by Finnish Regional State Administrative Agency in 2021. We inspected how democracy works from the perspective of Finnish population. The key topic of the study was how the library has contributed to social inclusion, cohesion and community, and equal access to information. We put the focus on seven attributes and the weights of the attributes were evaluated in cooperation with library directors and developers from five countries. By combining the population survey results and attribute weightings provided by library experts, we calculated a composite index to assess how the library succeeded in contributing to the promotion of democracy.
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