Modeling the Influence of Culture in Playing the Role of Public Libraries as Community Centers: A Grounded Theory Study

Today, in addition to their traditional role in accessing books, and providing a place for reading and other recreational and recreational purposes, public libraries are considered as spaces of society that also have important social roles and functions. This research was conducted with the aim of identifying and ranking cultural factors affecting the role of Iran's public libraries as community centers, and in order to provide a conceptual model in this field, based on Jürgen Habermas' theory of the public sphere.

This research is applied in terms of its purpose; In terms of data collection, survey; And in terms of the nature of the data, it is a mixed research of an exploratory type, which was carried out with a systematic approach of database theorizing. In the qualitative part, effective factors were identified by conducting 33 interviews and 2 focus groups (each group has 4 people and a total of 8 people). The validity of these factors was confirmed by using the content validity ratio (CVR) index, and their reliability was confirmed through the Fleiss' kappa coefficient test. In the quantitative part, the reliability of the tool was confirmed using a questionnaire consisting of 16 items and with Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.91. Finally, factors were ranked by Shannon's entropy method.

The findings showed that three cultural factors, including local discourse, the arena of understanding and cultural diffusion, are effective in playing the role of public libraries as community centers. Meanwhile, the field of understanding is considered the most important factor and cultural diffusion has the least effect in this field. All factors had content validity higher than 0.33 and Kappa coefficient higher than 0.7, so all of them have the necessary validity and reliability. Finally, the conceptual model of the research was designed and drawn in six sections.

Jürgen Habermas' theory of the public sphere is one of the sociological theories, which is close to the goals and mission of public libraries. On the other hand, the culture factor is a fundamental factor for playing the role of public libraries as community centers. In this regard, many people may still think that public libraries are a place only for reading, but a review of the various actions and activities of public libraries shows that these places carry out various activities that advance the cultural development of societies. In this way, public libraries play a prominent role in carrying out cultural activities. In order to fulfill its role as a community center, public libraries need to promote the native discourse of the society, be a safe arena for free discussion and understanding of different sections of the society, and spread culture in local communities.