The Social Impact Assessment Of Public Library

Establishing social inclusion as a mission of Chinese public libraries needs practical demonstration of local community. This present article attempts to explore the theory, methodologies and designing of the social impact assessment of public libraries. The first part of the article introduces identified social impacts of public libraries in the western countries related to social exclusion and social capital. The mission and values of public libraries as its current existence are consist two main elements. The first is to promote learning and capacity building, and the second is public library as a social space which contributes to the establishment of social capital. The second part describes the development of methodologies of impact assessment and and especially the five methods of social impact assessment of public cultural institutions which is combined with previous research cases. Part three set as case study investigates the library services for the visually impaired of the Pudong Library in Shanghai, appraises and analyzes the social value and contribution of Pudong Library in promoting social inclusion, based on the Social Outcomes framework for Museums, Libraries and Archives, with the aim of tackling the question whether China's public libraries in large cities can exert social impact with social inclusion. This case study uses qualitative methods to gather data and measure the social inclusive output of public library.