Introduction to Section One: Sustainable Communities and the Role of the Public Library

In the development of SDG 17, the United Nations (2015) identifies partnerships as a key role in building sustainable communities: Target Goal 17.17 states (on a macro level) that countries should “encourage and promote effective public, public–private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.” Applying this focus on a micro level, public libraries have experiences and resources needed for building local partnerships that are both sustainable and provide community-wide impact (Mehra et al., 2020). This section includes five chapters that establish theoretical foundations and illustrate research activities centered in partnerships. Chapters 1, 3–5 each present case studies of successful partnerships between public libraries and other community organizations where the library serves as the backbone organization. Chapter 2 discusses the importance of supporting library staff and their relationships to form partnerships for building sustainable communities. These chapters operationalize significant elements of the public library – sustainable communities (PLSC) framework visualized in the introduction to the book.