Out of Necessity Comes Unbridled Imagination for Survival: Contributive Justice in Spanish Libraries during Economic Crisis

Abstract

[EN] The call for this journal issue notes that “social justice in LIS/services involves achieving action-oriented socially relevant outcomes via information-related work.” There is not a more fitting time and place for such action than in Spain where the current economic crisis has left more than 6 million unemployed in 2013 (or 27% of the population). It is not just communities, which are grappling with the pain of the economic downturn, but libraries are also suffering from the crisis as a result of budget cuts due to reduced public funding. This article presents the case of Spanish academic and public libraries that have found solutions to keep their libraries open, providing services vital to the economic and sociocultural needs of their communities. This case is an example of contributive justice evidenced in the actions taken by Spanish libraries and their communities as well as in the manner the research data were collected. Eight library-related actions were found: professional, community, social, political, digital, cultural/heritage, economic and ontological. Despite economic hardships all around, these Spanish examples reveal the value of contributive and grassroots efforts when governments fail to provide, the impact of libraries as social justice institutions, and the role of librarians as change agents. Moreover, these contributions of social justice illustrate actions appropriate to a contributive justice framework for libraries, proposed in this article.