The social impact of libraries as reported in the Region of Extremadura’s communications media during the economic crisis in Spain

Abstract

The primary objective of this work was to study news items about libraries published in the different communications media of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in recent years in order to see what impact and visibility libraries have had in those media. A secondary objective was to determine quantitatively whether the complex economic crisis the country has suffered was reflected in any decrease in the number of news items about libraries. For this, a total of 3206 news articles was collected. After their analysis in detail, they were reduced to the 490 which the study’s results address. This decrease by a factor of about seven in the final news items selected was because the title or the first few paragraphs of the news item did not exactly express its content. As a consequence, a qualitative analysis of the content was necessary. The conclusion reached was that the economic crisis suffered by Spain had indeed been reflected in an evolution undergone by news items about libraries in the media. Although the numbers of those items decreased in the period analysed (from 2007/2008 to 2012/2013) coinciding with the crisis, there was an upswing in 2013 compared with 2012 which may reflect the much hoped for ‘green shoots’ of recovery of the Spanish economy.