Qualitative Study of the Role of Public Libraries in Creating and Increasing Social Trust

The purpose of this research is to study the role of public libraries in creating and increasing social trust of society. This research is a Qualitative research and it has used grounded theory method. In present research, 37 library member, 16 librarian, 45 citizen, and four Tehran’s public libraries as sample group were chosen by Theoretical sampling method. Data collection was accomplished by semi structured interview and observation and the obtained data were analyzed used theoretical coding method. The research findings indicated that the explored public libraries can perform fundamental role in creating and increasing social trust by creating equal sense, members an librarians social interactions in public libraries and submitting the best quality of library services. This role can perform by two approaches: institutional and social. But in present time, appearance of it is in low level in explored public libraries.