1. Libraries and public perceptions:
A comparative analysis of the
European press
Methodological insights
Anna Galluzzi, MSc, PhD
5th International Conference on
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries
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2. Speech contents
• Origins of the research
• Aims and contents of the research
• The numbers
• Processing the articles
• Some first findings
• Conclusions
2

3. Origins of the research
• Much research and discussion about
the future of libraries, particularly
public libraries
• The economic crisis has exacerbated
the situation
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4. Origins of the research
• The issue of the future of libraries has
gone beyond the boundaries of
the librarians' playground
• Many methods have been applied to
prove the social and economic impact
of libraries
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5. An alternative method
• The analysis of newspapers
• Looking at newspapers is an attempt
to move outside the specialised
literature concerning libraries
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6. Experimenting a
bottom-up method
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7. Strenghts and weaknessess
• News selection starting mainly from the
national and international press agencies
• The choice depends on the interests of
readership
• But nowadays traditional newspapers are
not the one and only conveyors of public
opinions
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8. Strenghts and weaknessess
• From the points of view of promptness
and audience, the traditional newspapers
have been completely walloped by the
other media
• Role in commenting, debating and
analysing the news
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9. Strenghts and weaknessess
In sum
• Newspapers are not completely
representative of the public opinion
anymore
• But they are an important detector of the
issues at stakes
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10. Aims of the research
• Aim: Quantifying and qualifying the presence of
issues concerning libraries in the European
press over the last years
• Research questions:
▫ the most discussed topics
▫ differences between the European countries
▫ differences between the European newspapers
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11. Criteria and parameters of the
research
• Chronological span covered:
2008 to 2012
• The focus has been put on Europe
• Countries taken into account:
The UK, France, Spain and Italy
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12. Criteria and parameters of the
research
• Newspapers: Two for each country in
their print editions - among those of
national relevance and the most
widespread, covering both the centre-left
area and the centre-right
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13. Criteria and parameters of the
research
• The selected newspapers:
▫ The UK: The Times and The Guardian
▫ France: Le Figaro and Le Monde
▫ Spain: El Mundo and El País
▫ Italy: Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica
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14. Criteria and parameters of the
research
• Sources:
▫ Lexis Nexis™ News for Le Monde only and
Factiva™ for all the other titles
• The source selected was the national
print edition (without the local editions)
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15. Criteria and parameters of the
research
• Query parameters:
▫ "librar*" and "bibliot*" as keywords in the full
text search, according to the language of the
newspaper (for the French newspapers only
"mediat*” too)
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16. The numbers
• The articles retrieved: 41,611
• The pertinent ones, i.e. those articles
which concern libraries in a proper
sense: 3,659
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17. Uses of “library” not pertinent
• personal libraries
• house furniture
• the place where an event or an exhibition is held
• the place where a murder or a crime occurs
• the title of a book series
• a bunch of physical or digital objects (e.g. iTunes as a music digital
library)
• the name of sections of newspapers
• idiomatic expressions and figures of speech encompassing the term
“library”, like “Library of Babel” or "bookworm" (which is "library
mouse" in French, Italian and Spanish)
• libraries cited in tender announcements
• libraries cited in biographies and stories
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18. Processing the articles
• After the selection, a text and content
analysis of the articles was needed
• The analysis was carried out manually and
no text analysis software was used
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19. Processing the articles
• Why?
▫ risk either to run the wrong procedures and
queries or to create fictitious relationships
among concepts and documents
▫ furthermore, the analysis of articles in four
different languages would have increased the
variables and the potential inconsistency of the
results
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20. Phases
• Each article was identified with a univocal name
• An Excel worksheet was prepared
• The articles were analysed and coded
▫ the texts were carefully reviewed and all
concepts and ideas were annotated and then
grouped
• A number of pivot tables were used to sort and
summarise the data
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21. Coding parameters
• Country
• Newspaper title
• Year of publication
• Prevalence or not of libraries as subject of the article
• Type of library considered
• Main topic of the article
• The newspaper section where the article is published
• In case the article talks about libraries of other
countries, the country it talks about
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22. The topics
• Mission/Roles
• Conservation/Holdings/
Catalogue
• Digitisation/Digital
libraries
• History
• Reading/Marketing
• Politics/Strategy/
Management
• Library closures/
Budget cuts
• Internet/E-book/
Technology
• Services/Users
• Staff/Recruitment
• New libraries/New
buildings
• Acquisitions/Open access
• Buildings/Architecture
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23. The topics
• Some groupings need an explanation
▫ Conservation/Holdings/Catalogue
▫ Acquisitions/Open Access
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24. Some first findings
• The data analysis and processing is
ongoing and the research findings are far
from being complete and somewhat
meaningful
• As for now, some first findings in form
of tables and graphs can be offered with
some first comments
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25. Articles where the library subject is
prevalent vs. those where it is not
1653
45%2003
55%
Non prevalent
Prevalent
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26. Types of libraries (% on articles where the
library subject prevails)
1% 16%
48%
18%
8%
9%
Libraries in general
Public
National
Academic
School
Special/Specialised
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27. Types of libraries per country (on articles
where the library subject prevails)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
France Italy Spain UK
Special/Specialised
School
Academic
National
Public
Libraries in general
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28. Ranking of the most popular topics
(over the 5% threshold)
1. Politics/Strategy/Management
2. Library closures/Budget cuts
3. Digital/Digitisation
4. Services/Users
5. Conservation/Holdings/Catalogue
6. New libraries/New buildings
7. Mission/Roles
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29. Main topics (over 5% threshold) per country (%
on articles where the library subject prevails)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
France Italy Spain UK
New libraries/New buildings
Services/Users
Library closures/Budget cuts
Politics/Strategy/Management
Digital/Digitisation
Conservation/Holdings/Catalogue
Mission/Roles
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30. Main topics (over 5% threshold) per year (% on
articles where the library subject prevails)
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0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
New libraries/New buildings
Services/Users
Library closures/Budget cuts
Politics/Strategy/Management
Digital/Digitisation
Conservation/Holdings/Catalogue
Mission/Roles

31. Conclusions
• The main trends:
▫ the prevalence of public and national libraries
in the debate
▫ a general agreement on the most popular topics
▫ no relevant connection between the political
areas the newspapers belong to and the topics
dealt with
▫ the effect of the economic crisis on the
evolution of the debate is evident
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32. Conclusions
• The research proves to be
effective:
▫ to highlight topics and approaches
▫ to understand how they relate with the
common thoughts and the general
feelings
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33. Thank you!
anna.galluzzi@gmail.com
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