Abstract:

The paper selects America and Britain as inspection targets which have the long tradition of public library, and researches the change and the design of public libraries’ social roles in the digital age based on five American policies and three British policies on Public Library which were published in the last 40 years. The views of the paper are that: (1)The role design has become the core part of public library policies in America and Britain; (2)In the progress of playing new roles, public libraries pay attention to meeting needs and expectations of communities, personals and governments by combining traditional service models and Internet technology; (3)Public libraries have an obligation to reduce the digital gap which means the role of protecting social democracy, fair and equality played by public libraries in real world has extended to virtual world.

Keywords: Public library, Social role, Public library policy