The role of the rural public library in community development and empowerment

Public libraries are an important entity in local communities, particularly in rural and disadvantaged communities. They are more than shelves of books. Public libraries offer an ever changing range of cultural resources for the community, and they have become a type of social and cultural institution. This article discusses the broadly accepted conceptualization of information for development which accommodates the concepts of advancement of adult literacy and development information for people to improve their economic and social conditions. It reports on early findings of an investigation into the links between community development, empowerment and rural public library usage in Australia and Malaysia.