The ALA Center for Public Life/
Libraries Fostering Civic Engagement MIG and
ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom
Announces
Who Do I Trust to Protect My Privacy?
Privacy Conversation Deliberative Forums
Participant’s Guide and Moderator’s Guide
Now available in Conjunction with
ALA’s Privacy Week, May 2-8, 2010
Learn to convene and moderate community discussions on privacy
2 free online workshops
Tips on Hosting a Deliberative Forum on Privacy
March 30, 2010, 2:00 – 4:00 EDT; 1:00 – 3:00 CDT; 11:00 – 1:00 PDT
How to Moderate a Deliberative Forum on Privacy
April 13, 2010
, 2:00 – 4:00 EDT; 1:00 – 3:00 CDT; 11:00 – 1:00 PDT
For More Information, contact:
Taylor Willingham, taylor@austin-pacific.com; Nancy Kranich, nancy.kranich@nyu.edu; Angela Maycock, amaycock@ala.org
The American Library Association’s Center for Public Life was established in 2010 in conjunction with the Kettering Foundation. The Center’s role is to train librarians from different types of libraries to convene and moderate deliberative forums and frame issues of local and national concern, using National Issues Forums materials and processes.
Follow the ALA Center for Public Life/Libraries Foster Civic Engagement at:
Civic Engagement Blog-http://discuss.ala.org/civicengagement/
Join us on ALA Connect
Subscribe to ALA’s Civic Engagement listserv:
1.    Go to: http://lists.ala.org/wws
2.    Click on “View All Listsâ€
3.    Scroll down to “deliberate@ala.orgâ€
4.    Click on “Subscribeâ€
Privacy is a particularly slippery and amorphous issue, about which people hold a wide variety of opinions and beliefs. By sparking a national conversation on privacy, Choose Privacy Week (May 2-8, 2010) will give people with different perspectives an opportunity to learn more about the issues, weigh in on choices with their fellow citizens, and consider options for action.
The ALA Membership Initiative Group, Libraries Fostering Civic Engagement is promoting public deliberation on the topic, “Who Do I Trust My Privacy To?” Using a discussion guide written by members, Nancy Kranich and Carolyn Caywood, participants will examine approaches to protecting privacy that relies on three possible strategies for protecting privacy. (Discussion guide materials forthcoming!)
Approach 1: The Marketplace
The marketplace is the source of innovation in security and privacy protection technology and it also has a vested interest in privacy that secures the integrity of financial data.
Approach 2: The Goverment
The government has a responsibility to provide for public safety which includes identity protection and to secure the rights necessary to a free society.
Approach 3: Myself
I, my self, recognize that privacy values are individual and varied and that no one cares more about my needs than me.
The Libraries Fostering Civic Engagement MIG is offering two free online workshops to help librarians convene forums, and to moderate community discussions on privacy in conjunction with Privacy Week, May 2-8, 2010.
March 30, 2010
1:00 – 3:00 Central Time
This workshop will cover:
April 13, 2010
1:00 – 3:00 Central Time
This workshop will cover:
If you have questions or comments, please leave them here in the comments section. If you are not a registered user of this site, you can forward your comments to taylor@austin-pacific.com. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
(This is our first venture so we’re counting on your patience and guidance. We’re all learning together!)
Contact: Mary Ghikas
American Library Association
312-280-2518
mghikas@ala.org
NEWS
For Immediate Release
March 10, 2010
The American Library Association (ALA) and the Kettering Foundation have signed a research agreement to establish a Center for Public Life. The Center will train librarians from different types of libraries to convene and moderate deliberative forums and frame issues of local and national concern, using National Issues Forums materials and processes.
During the first year, ALA will form an advisory committee and begin training moderators to convene and conduct local deliberative forums. Initially, the new Centers will tap into the experience of libraries already convening deliberative forums. They will form the hub of a network of active mentors capable of strengthening and expanding their work locally, statewide and nationally and connecting it with other forum conveners throughout the country.
Unlike other such Centers, ALA will provide training to members of a single profession—librarianship, in different locations around the country. The ALA Center will document the growing involvement of libraries with deliberation and the challenges and opportunities they face in conducting a nation-wide program that supports local public institutions such as libraries.
Since the founding of the Kettering Foundation’s National Issues Forums in the 1980’s, libraries have hosted and some have even convened these and other types of forums like Study Circles, Choices and Conversation Cafés.  For many years, ALA has worked with libraries to encourage public deliberation, hosting moderator training sessions and other programs related to community building and engagement.  A recent survey of librarians for the Kettering Foundation found strong interest in convening deliberative forums. But two-thirds of respondents said they needed training in order to participate, with most indicating that they were likely to participate in an ALA sponsored training program—particularly if it was affordable, nearby and/or electronic.
ALA’s proposal was developed by past president Nancy Kranich, with the assistance of Taylor Willingham and Mary Ghikas. Kranich and Willingham founded the ALA Libraries Foster Civic Engagement Membership Initiative Group (MIG) in 2004 to advance dialogue and deliberation through libraries. Over the past few years, the MIG has worked with the Intellectual Freedom Roundtable to frame the issue of privacy. That framing will be part of the Office of Intellectual Freedom Privacy Revolution that will launch in the spring of 2010. The new PPI will teach librarians how to moderate deliberative forums about privacy in local communities.
For more information, contact Mary Ghikas (mghikas@ala.org) at ALA or Nancy Kranich, nancy.kranich@rutgers.edu