This digest argues that free, public libraries foster and fortify democracy and democratic citizenship. Because libraries offer services and materials representing many points of view, they allow citizens to fulfill their civic and personal responsibilities and to exercise their liberties. Particularly for former communist countries, libraries can…

As Gail Bush reports, "each section of this monograph includes articles that invite the reader to explore his or her own response to the authors' messages... The purpose here is not to set in stone principles and practices to be followed blindly but to present a disposition toward intellectual behaviors that seriously consider our responsibilities…