Opinions of Library Directors and Librarians on the Handover of Public Library Services to the Local Governments in Turkey

Local governments which have overtaken important functions for providing public services to the public, and which fulfill these functions according to the needs of the public, are hence the nearest and most effective administrative units to the public. Public Libraries are the social institutions, which have local characteristics and provide all the information needs of the public that they serve, for providing assistance for the development of their regions. Local governments and public libraries are closely related to the societies they serve and shape their services according to the needs of the society. This study was made in order to present the views of the library directors and librarians that work in public libraries about the handover of public libraries to the local governments. The study was performed on the library directors and librarians that work in public libraries in Turkey. In this study which was made by survey method 207 questionnaire forms were applied to the library directors and librarians. The hypothesis of the survey was formed as; "the library directors and librarians working in public libraries think that it would be appropriate to handover public libraries tothe local governments in Turkey only when legal structure, financing, staff, structure, collection conditions are provided, and without the satisfaction of these conditions, any changes would harm public libraries. At the end of the survey, it was understood that public librarians accept and want the transferring of public libraries to the local governments in principle, however, they think that it would be appropriate to realize this by providing the proper conditions. Besides, librarians do not consider the approaches in the legal process that was initiated about the handover of public libraries to the local governments as trustworthy in this period.