Theories of the Information Society, Third Edition - Cryptome

INFORMATION AND DEMOCRACY
Public libraries in Britain are in decline with fewer books being borrowed
while purchases of books by individuals are being sustained. It is this sort of
evidence that persuades one that the public library network, seen as a foundational
element of the public sphere, is being diminished. Fundamental principles
– most important, free access and a comprehensive service – are under challenge,
threatened by a new definition of information as something to be made available
on market terms and preferably online. As this conception increases its influence,
so may we expect to see the further decline of the public service ethos operating
in libraries (users will increasingly be regarded as customers who are to pay their
way) and with this its public sphere functions of provision of the full range of
informational needs without individual cost. In the long term the prospects for
the public library service are dim.
Museums and art galleries
Robert Hewison (1987) concluded his polemical review of changes in museums
and art galleries thus:
In the nineteenth century museums were seen as sources of education and
improvement, and were therefore free. Now they are treated as financial institutions
that must pay their way, and therefore charge entrance fees. The arts
are no longer appreciated as a source of inspiration, of ideas, images or
values, but are part of the ‘leisure business’. We are no longer lovers of art,
but customers for a product.
(Hewison, 1987, p. 129)
Hewison’s account of the substitution by the ‘heritage industry’ of longestablished
principles of museum and art gallery organisation echoes several
themes that I have already reviewed in considering a decline of the public sphere
with regard to broadcasting and library provision. So is it possible to understand
changes in museums and art galleries with reference to the concept of the public
sphere? While I do not think anyone can argue convincingly that these institutions
were ever a fully formed public sphere (so many were exclusionary, elitist
and intimidating), one can conceive of them as, in important ways, approximations
to the ideal. Recent trends, in so far as they challenge the bases of the public
sphere, necessarily have important consequences for the sort of information
made available and access to it in the nation’s art galleries and museums.
How might we depict museums and art galleries – at least, established ones
– as containing public sphere characteristics? There are a number of key features.
First, the principle of free entry to the ‘palaces of enlightenment’ (as the
Victoria and Albert [V&A] was described at its foundation) has long been axial
to the operation of British museums and art galleries. This tenet stems from the
idea that these institutions have essential cultural and educational functions
to fulfil and that, accordingly, access should be open to everyone irrespective of
income.
182