Palaces for the People: How the Historical Development of Organizational Culture in American Public Libraries Aids Librarians in Navigating Growing Politicization

As a cornerstone of American democracy, public libraries in the US play an essential role in facilitating the freedom of access to information and community engagement. However, since 2020, American public libraries have experienced a rise in politicized attacks by conservatives in an effort to radically alter library collections and programming through book challenges and protests. Against the backdrop of democratic backsliding, the politicization of public libraries becomes especially concerning given their democratic role. Yet, public librarians have boldly stood up to these anti-democratic efforts. This thesis provides an explanation for why public librarians have been successful and forceful in responding to such threats: public libraries’ democratic, resilient, and unwavering organizational culture. Specifically, the cultural tenets of professional ethics, intellectual freedom, and inclusivity, which have developed since the establishment of American public libraries to become central components of libraries’ organizational culture, have made public librarians successful. The thesis first explores how each of these three tenets of public librarianship have been established over the course of its history to become the deeply ingrained cultural values that they are today. The thesis then uses Pella Public Library in Pella, Iowa as a case study to demonstrate how, when combined, professional ethics, intellectual freedom, and inclusivity have aided public libraries in successfully responding to politicization by creating a resilient, unwavering, and democratic organizational culture. To analyze public libraries’ organizational culture, Edgar and Peter Schein’s framework of cultural analysis is employed to evaluate culture at three levels: artifact, espoused values, and underlying assumptions.