The prestige, image, credibility and community role of libraries: a survey of public attitudes towards libraries
The article presents the results of a survey focused on the public‘s perception of the prestige of the library profession, the image of libraries, and the credibility and community role of libraries in the Czech Republic. The questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 1012 respondents, considering representativeness by gender, age, education, region and the size of the place of residence. Among the most interesting findings are: the average perceived prestige of the library profession compared to other selected professions, the high level of perceived credibility of libraries, resources provided by libraries, and trust in the competence of librarians to verify information. However, these findings do not correspond with the actual behaviour of respondents, who often choose other means than libraries as their sources for verifying information.
keywords: libraries, credibility, image, prestige, community libraries, survey, questionnaire
