Where's the value? The worth of public libraries: A systematic review of findings, methods and research gaps

The literature on the community roles of public libraries remains fragmented across thematic domains and often under-specifies the mechanisms through which libraries generate community effects.

“The review argues that the literature has moved decisively beyond narrow service-centred conceptions of the public library, yet remains fragmented across thematic domains and often under-specifies the mechanisms through which libraries generate community effects.”

Sørensen (2021) demonstrates that value research has accumulated unevenly and still leaves important conceptual and methodological gaps.

“Vårheim et al. (2019) show that work on libraries as public sphere institutions is dispersed across multiple research questions and methods, while Sørensen (2021) demonstrates that value research has accumulated unevenly and still leaves important conceptual and methodological gaps.”

Both Sørensen (2021) and Blanchard et al. (2026) remain bounded by the value vocabulary that organises their respective corpora.

“Both reviews are indispensable, but both remain bounded by the value vocabulary that organises their respective corpora.”

Neither Sørensen (2021) nor Blanchard et al. (2026) asks whether the diverse functions catalogued under 'value' or 'impact' share an underlying institutional logic, and neither steps outside the LIS literature to ask what kind of public institution the library is.

“Neither asks whether the diverse functions catalogued under 'value' or 'impact' share an underlying institutional logic, and neither steps outside the LIS literature to ask what kind of public institution the library is.”

Review-based knowledge synthesis is now well established within library and information science itself.

“Although the integrative review method has been most fully developed in nursing, health and applied social sciences (Torraco, 2016;Whittemore and Knafl, 2005), review-based knowledge synthesis is now well established within library and information science itself, as recent mapping and systematic reviews of public library scholarship demonstrate (Blanchard et al., 2026;Sørensen, 2021;Vårheim et al.”