Role of Libraries in Strengthening Tolerant and Inclusive Societies

Abstract

Libraries around the world have always played active roles to improve the quality of lives of the people. Some are more successful than others due to their particular local conditions, whether it is availability of funds, culture or history. With the implementation of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals Programme (SDGs) which runs from 2016-2030, all governments are working hard towards achieving the goals that have been agreed by member countries. Libraries certainly have critical roles to play in many, if not all of the SDG goals. Examples that are more visible include how libraries help to improve goal 4 in raising the quality of education by enabling the skills of reading in young children, and how libraries help in bringing about gender equality in goal 5 by creating safe places for girls and boys to learn in common spaces and to live together harmoniously. Even in goals that do not seem to sit so clearly with libraries such as goal 9 on innovation and infrastructure, the ability of libraries to provide up-to-date information and data to support projects and programmes to strengthen innovation cultures and infrastructure outcomes allow libraries to play a role that no other institution can play so easily due to the ready access to information and librarians’ information search skills. Librarians are also trained in doing excellent secondary research and are able to extract good data and stories from across communities, countries and regions to provide perspectives which cannot be easily obtained...