About

Libraries Promote Civic Engagement
by Nancy Kranich
Past President, American Library Association

“For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago—silently, without warning—that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current. Without at first noticing, we have been pulled apart from one another and from our communities over the last third of the century.”
–Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Americans are more disconnected from each other and from the institutions of civic life than ever before. Over the last thirty years, many citizens stopped voting, curtailed their work with political parties and service organizations, and attended fewer community meetings and political events. They’ve even diminished their pleasurable get togethers, with fewer people entertaining friends at home. Americans are also less public spirited, giving fewer dollars to charities. It is unlikely that our civic culture will be reclaimed without a sustained, broad-based social movement to restore civic virtue and democratic participation in our society.

Librarians share concerns about the erosion of civic engagement and participation in our communities. Today, many are working closely with our communities to find new means to connect citizens and boost civic participation. This is because libraries uphold and strengthen some of the most fundamental democratic ideals of our society. We not only make information freely available to all citizens, but also foster the development of civil society. Throughout the country, our libraries are rekindling civic engagement, promoting greater citizen participation, and encouraging increased involvement in community problem-solving and decision-making by developing community partnerships, facilitating local dialogue, and disseminating local data. These efforts are likely to garner greater community support and position libraries as even more essential community-based institutions.

Nationwide, libraries are undertaking a vast array of innovative, creative approaches that engage communities and assist them in meeting today’s most pressing civic challenges. They are: convening groups to consider local issues and teach civic skills; building community information literacy partnerships; hosting community-wide One Book/One Community reading clubs in cities like Seattle, Rochester, Chicago, and New York, creating digital neighborhood directories that link residents and services; enhancing civic literacy, and partnering with local museums and public broadcasting stations. These new services increase social capital — the glue that holds people together and enables them to build bridges to others.

According to Robert Putnam, “Citizenship is not a spectator sport.” The challenge for libraries in this information age is to find new ways to engage citizens to participate in our democracy and renew our communities. Working closely with a rich and diverse array of citizens, libraries help their communities rekindle civil society and expand public participation in our democracy.

Libraries as Public Forums

Throughout the United States, libraries are hosting deliberative public forums in order to engage their communities in the issues of the day. At the heart of the deliberative forum process is the belief that citizens can seek out solutions and common ground on issues that affect their everyday lives. Unlike other public forums where citizens are invited to advocate a position in short increments, often resulting in rancorous debates and sound bites, deliberative forums encourage participants to listen to each other for deeper understanding and to express their personal values and concerns.

Forum and training workshops help people of diverse views find common ground for action on an issue of deep concern. It is a demanding process requiring consideration of viewpoints that do not necessarily appeal to most participants. But the method used to frame the issue helps participants interpret the issue in a way that makes sense. Today, Americans must find new ways to think, talk and work together to make choices about critical issues of life and death such as the war with Iraq and dealing with terrorism. By convening forums in their own communities, librarians can foster deliberative democracy by creating experiences where citizens come together to talk about issues and help guide the country on its future course.

National Issues Forums

For more than two decades, communities in the United States have used the non-partisan National Issues Forums (NIF) discussion guides to navigate through complicated issues for more than twenty years. Libraries across the country and abroad often serve as vital partners in convening these forums. One good example, related to the California ballot measure on affirmative action, was a statewide deliberative forum campaign in partnership with the San Jose Mercury News initiated by State Librarian Kevin Starr. The newspaper provided a writer who worked with the Kettering Foundation, the research organization affiliated with NIF, to develop a discussion guide. The State Library, which provided funding for materials and moderators, trained librarians to run deliberative workshops at the University of California — Davis Public Policy Institute and elsewhere. The forums that were hosted by libraries and other community institutions helped Californians grapple with a difficult and potentially divisive issue in a constructive manner.

More recently, libraries have hosted forums on topics such as terrorism, national security, internet content, education, immigration, health care, international relations, and racial and ethnic tensions. Deliberative forums have also found a home in libraries in emerging democracies. For example, Svetlana Gorokhova spent six months as a fellow of the Kettering Foundation developing a guide for Russians to use to deliberate about the restitution for art, rare books and other spoils of war; today, she serves as a leader in establishing deliberative forums in libraries in Russia. Another, related example is the civic forums convened in Russia and the United States exploring the kind of relationship that citizens in each country want to have with each other.

NIF is not an organization, but a nationwide network of educational and community organizations that deliberate about national issues. The nonpartisan NIF does not advocate a specific approach or point of view. Instead, the NIF provides a mechanism for citizens to deliberate, exchange ideas and experiences with one another, and make more thoughtful and informed decisions. The results of NIF forums are shared with national and local leaders. Additionally, citizens who have attended a forum often join together to frame and address problems in their own communities.

NIF comes to ALA

NIF Public Policy Institutes hosted by university extension programs, neighborhood associations, and civic organizations around the country, train citizens around the country to host and moderate National Issues Forums. At ALA, Nancy Kranich first introduced the training to members as part of her ALA presidential initiative: Libraries and Democracy. When Kranich addressed a training workshop at the ALA 2002 annual conference, she stated, “Especially since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, Americans have turned to libraries to seek answers, increase global understanding, and bond with fellow citizens. With renewed interest in civic participation everywhere, we have a unique moment to demonstrate the important role libraries can play as a community space for public dialogue, and a perfect opportunity to prove that libraries are the cornerstone of democracy.”

At one of the first “hands-on” workshops, participants deliberated the issue, Racial and Ethnic Tensions: What Should We Do?, learned and practiced moderating skills, and developed community outreach plans. Participants found the forums helpful for stimulating community civic dialogues to deal with divisive issues. They also serve as “a perfect match for what we want to do.” Furthermore, as one participant noted, “These are great skills for most of us who probably facilitate meetings and workgroups as part of our jobs!”

Training sessions and programs at ALA and chapter meetings are stimulating interest in libraries as public forums. A listserv for those attending workshops provides opportunities to exchange ideas. A number of libraries now host forum series regularly; many participate in the September Project, a national day of deliberation commending the September 11th terrorist attacks. A new ALA Membership Initiative Group, “Libraries as Public Forums”, launched in 2004, meets at conferences and shares information via electronic forums.

Guidelines For Moderating a Public Forum

The moderator will guide the discussion yet remain neutral. The moderator will make sure that:

(Source: Guidelines for a National Issues Forum)

After a Forum Everyone Should Be Able To…

(From material created for National Issues Forums)