Cultural Mediation and the 2030 UN Agenda - Transforming Library in a Space for Encounters

Abstract

The UN 2030 Agenda addresses issues such as poverty eradication, education and health, creation of peaceful and inclusive societies. Through advocacy of The International Federation of Libraries Association (IFLA), issues such as access to information, ICTs and culture were included as part of the UN 2030 Agenda. This paper uses a narrow characterisation of culture to include the arts, museums, libraries and heritage that receive public funding, as engines for sustainable development. When thinking about the functions of culture, the first thing that is mentioned is its use for various purposes (social, economic, political, etc.). Publicly funded cultural institutions generate three types of value – intrinsic, instrumental and institutional. However, what is the primary importance of culture for society is less visible. It is the impact that culture has on individuals- the inherent or intrinsic value of culture- less visible, less touchable that has great importance for society at large, but also in the local community. It affects the minds of people, changes attitudes. It makes people more open to new trends and, through the individual, culture’s final goal is to change the society. This is why this intrinsic value is more useful at long distance, for society than the economic or other advantages. The ongoing democratization and digitization processes in our society pressure cultural institutions to become more prone towards communication and dialogue. The cultural places become spaces for encounters, where people who know something get to meet people who know something else. The library, known primary as a space for offering information and education should find ways to be transformed in a space for encounters and the library’s managers in cultural mediators. How are libraries going to employ cultural mediation techniques in order to be transformed in spaces of encounters? The purpose of this paper is to make a qualitative analysis on the role of cultural mediation within UN 2030 Agenda as a useful tool for transforming the library in a space for encounters.