20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

262 Olesea Coblean100, half of which in rural areas), which have been computerized and thushave access to the Internet. At the same time, the Best Practices Program,organized by IDIS VIITORUL, supported by Council of Europe has madepossible the opening of Information and Training Centres at communitylevel, offering to residents quality and modern social and cultural servicesthus, contributing to the democratization of public life.Building a favourable information environment for educatingcivic culture and actively including individuals in decision-making, atboth national and local levels, monitoring the state bodies and ensuringtransparency in their work are the finalities of societal communication.According to the researcher Constantin Marin, “societal communicationis the space where the public authority talks with the citizens by disseminatingpublic interest information and by collecting the information provided bythe civil society in view of enhancing social management and cohesion”.Therefore, communication plays a vital role in social integrationprocesses. This affirmation is supported by Chicago School members.Integration is “the relationship which is established between the individualand the society”.Social integration refers to the totality of social relationsamong individuals and social groups that are based on recognizing theirintegrity, values and rights. Carrying out integration work, the library actsfrom the individual to the social level, providing access to informationresources according to the citizen’s information needs. Or, it is the socialrequirement that makes a number of major changes in the informationcommunication sphere. The social requirement calls for new ways todetermine the actions necessary to promote an inclusive information policy.In these circumstances, another actor of the societal communicationappears – the library that has the role of mediator between the publicauthorities and the citizens. At the same time, the active involvement of thelibrary in forming the information culture and in organizing the individualsin relation to the information capital would mobilize and catalyse thedemocratic development of the country.Therefore, the library becomes an intrinsic component of societalcommunication and serves as a bridge and organizer of the feedbackbetween the public authorities and the citizens, the communication beingapproached as an information process of interactive connection andachieving the following objectives: ensuring the right to public information;diversifying information services and carriers in view of operationaland quality information of citizens; extending opportunities of access topublic information through information technologies; affirming qualitiesof socialization by forming “public awareness” and, respectively, “civic