O contributo das bibliotecas públicas para a efetivação da democracia cultural

The importance of libraries for local communities is widely recognized in society, namely because they carry out the presuppositions of a public service for culture, and because these equipments still contribute, indeed, to some cultural vitality in the everyday of cities. In this work the author intends to both to analyse the contribution of public libraries for the effectivity of cultural democracy in Portuguese municipalities, in a context of decentralization and localization of culture, and to propose strategies and transforming cultural practices that aim at an urban cultural vitality. The author also contends that the role of public libraries in the emancipation of civil society can be only one that favours the expansion of autonomous, critical and plural cultural creation of citizens