Small and Rural Libraries Transforming Communities: A Discourse Analysis of Media Coverage

Abstract

Small and rural libraries are increasingly at the forefront of initiatives to bring communities together to discuss and resolve important issues. This rising tide of libraries’ community engagement is reflected in local news coverage about small and rural libraries and the role they play for the communities they serve. Even so, very little has been published about how libraries in rural areas are depicted in media coverage. This article develops a systematic discourse analysis of media coverage around libraries’ community engagement efforts to better understand the ways in which these key institutions are perceived and made meaningful for public audiences. In the corpus of news articles that we analyze, we identify two distinct discourses: the changing role of libraries and libraries as “safe spaces.” We discuss the significance of these discourses for the field of library studies as well as their implications for library practitioners.