The image of an institution: Politicians and the urban library project

• Library projects serve as eye-openers for participating politicians.
• Library funding is justified publicly in terms of citizens' democratic rights.
• Library building projects are similar to one another despite different contexts.
• “Statement” library building projects have a clear city development function.

In terms of political perceptions, library building projects appear to be similar across different contexts. Qualitative interviews with local politicians were employed to examine attitudes towards public libraries and library development in three cities building new central libraries: Aarhus, Denmark; Birmingham, UK; and Oslo, Norway. Applying an institutional perspective, the analysis focuses on norms, legitimization, and organizational change. Findings show shared views on the role and mission of the library. The informants primarily pointed to citizens' democratic rights and their country's democratic tradition when legitimizing public funding for libraries in general. However, argumentation for local library building projects was connected to city development and the desire to portray a city as oriented towards knowledge and culture.