Sustainable Practices in Malaysian Rural Libraries: A Case Study Approach

Rural libraries, which are often referred to as village or community libraries, are developed to meet the needs of rural communities in Malaysia. Rural libraries are also found everywhere else in the world, such as in China, Nigeria, Kenya, South American countries, and many more. However, a few rural libraries in other countries closed due to reasons such as being underutilized, financial constraints, etc. It is hoped that this phenomenon will not happen in Malaysia. This study aimed to develop a sustainability framework to ensure that the rural libraries will be sustained in the community. The objectives of this study were to identify the environmental sustainability characteristics of rural libraries, to classify the economic sustainability characteristics of rural libraries, and to recognize the social sustainability characteristics of rural libraries. A rural library in Northern Malaysia was selected for this study, where the staff, users, and non-users were interviewed. This study employed a qualitative approach as it is the best method for understanding the phenomenon and answering questions. The semi-structured interviews are used as they provide flexibility to the researcher in collecting the data. ATLAS.ti version 7 is used in analyzing the data.