Role of Municipality Public Libraries in Promoting Social Capital

The aim of the research is to determine the role of public libraries affiliated to Tehran municipality in promoting social capital.

This research is practical in purpose, and is an analytical survey. The statistical society includes 18900 the citizens and patrons of libraries during 2017 among them 377 person were chosen by Stratified random sampling method. A researcher- made questionnaire is used for collecting data. The hypotheses are tested by Kolmogrov-Smirnov, one-sample T test, independent-samples T test, and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and the result is analyzed by SPSS software version 22.

The results of one sample T test showed that with 0/001 significance level, the role of Municipality public libraries in promoting social capital of citizens for all dimensions: structural, relational and cognitive is meaningful; and there is a significant relationship between them. In significance level higher than 0/05, there is no relationship between demographic specifications of the members and social capital.

The results also show that the demographic specifications of the members had played a little role on social capital through libraries, and the quality and quantity of the services has a positive role on the social capital. Regarding the scattered libraries of Municipality and its cultural houses and cultural centers, the Organization has a high potential for cultural exchanges and cultural promotion through meeting sessions, political and cultural gatherings.