Page 167 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

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166 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.12, 2020

Community-based practices in LIS and their theoretical legacies: A review
of theoretical perspectives from community librarianship to community
informatics
〇a*
ZHOU Wenbo〇 & YU Liangzhi
During the past half century, the international LIS sector has initiated or taken part in three
community-based movements, namely community librarianship, community networking movement
and community informatics. The purpose of this paper is three fold: to review these movements
based on related publications in English since the 1960s, to examine their theoretical foundations
and to analyze how these theories informed the emergence and development of these movements.
It then explicates their lessons for China’s rural information service projects (such as the National
Cultural Information Resource Sharing Project and the Rural Library Project). The analysis shows
that international LIS sector’s community-based practices were informed most notably by four
theoretical perspectives, including communitarianism, social capital theory, information equality
and sociotechnical theory.
Under the perspective of communitarianism, these three community-based movements were
all aspired by the critical role that communities play in social development. They emphasize
community empowerment, community revitalization, community identity consciousness, and
excavation and protection of community cultural heritage, and position themselves as platforms for
interaction and communication among community members, and hubs for community information
and organizations. Under the perspective of social capital theory, these movements focus on
strengthening the communication and cooperation of community members by providing them with
information services and information exchange space. At the same time, they also emphasize the
important role of non-discriminatory public facilities in enhancing the trust between citizens and
the government (society), which they believe are conducive to social capitals of the community.
Under the guidance of the idea of information equality, these three community movements
emphasize library and information profession’s duty to protect all community residents’ right for
equal access to information. From the perspective of social technology theory, community network
movement and community informatics focus on the interaction between information technology
and community context, emphasizing that information technology design and development should
be sensitive to community needs and should aim to achieve real integration between information
technology and community.
Although very few LIS initiatives amount to community-based movements in China, the Chinese
library and information sector has always been an active participant in government-led community
development projects. This paper believes that the community-based practices and theories of the
international LIS sector reviewed in this paper can provide important lessons for LIS participation
in China’s rural development projects. These include, among others, targeting at community
* Correspondence should be addressed to ZHOU Wenbo, Email: zhou_wenbo@126.com, ORCID: 0000-0001-8432-4704.