Investigations to affordable strategies for under-resourced public libraries in the South African context

OverviewThis dataset supports a systematic literature review on strategies for under-resourced public libraries: A systematic literature review aimed at investigating low-cost solutions that under-resourced public libraries can implement to continue providing services to their communities, addressing digital divides and lack of access to information. The review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.Search StrategyDatabases: Emerald Insight and Library Science Database (1970 - current) (via ProQuest database)Search period: 2012 to June 2025Search string: ("public libraries" OR "community libraries" OR "rural libraries") AND ("under resource" OR "budget constraints" OR "low cost" OR "resource constraints" OR "cost-effective" OR "limited resources") AND (“strategies” OR “practices” OR “procedures” OR “approach” OR “methods” OR “plans”)Inclusion &amp; Exclusion CriteriaIncluded:Peer-reviewed articles published between 2012 and June 2025Studies focusing on strategies to improve library servicesArticles published in EnglishFocus mainly on public libraries in low- and middle-income countries, but high-income countries are to be considered if they offer information on cost-effective strategies, tools, or initiatives applicable to South African librariesExcluded:Non-peer-reviewed studies (e.g., grey literature)Studies that focus on expensive solutions (e.g., artificial intelligence)Studies not available in full textStudies published in journals to which UP is not subscribed, if they are not open access.Not limited to only studies on public libraries, but studies not relevant to public libraries will be excluded.File ContentsFile1 - [MIT research data. xlsx]: Excel spreadsheet with two sheets:Sheet 1 (Article Characteristics and QA): Full list of included studies detailing characteristics such as authors, year of publication, [add other fields, e.g., country, journal, methodology] alongside quality appraisal scores for each studySheet 2 (Data Extraction Sheet): Coded variables, themes, and extracted findings from each included study<br>File 2 - [Barriers vs. enablers co-occurrences xlsx]: Barriers and enablers co-occurrence matrix exported from Atlas.ti. Rows represent barrier codes, and columns represent enabler codes, with cell values indicating co-occurrence frequencies (Gr= ground count) across included studies. Derived from the coded data in File 1 (Sheet 2).<br>