Nancy Kranich

The Information Commons: a public policy report

BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE at NYU SCHOOL OF LAW Democracy Program, Free Expression Policy Project 161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th floor New York NY 10013 Phone: (212) 998-6730 Web site: www.brennancenter.org Free Expression Policy Project: www.fepproject.org

Civic Partnerships: The Role of Libraries in Promoting Civic Engagement.

ABSTRACT Schools, colleges and universities, and local communities now recognize the key role they play to encourage citizen participation and promote civic engagement. New civic engagement initiatives underway offer perfect opportunities for libraries to fulfill their traditional roles of promoting civic literacy and ensuring an informed citizenry. Today, libraries undertake a vast array of innovative programs that bring citizens together to share common concerns. These programs are most successful when libraries forge civic partnerships to extend their reach and work with other organizations and individuals to strengthen participation in democracy.

Communities, Learning and Democracy in the Digital Age

Access to information networks constitutes the essential tool for enabling citizens to participate in the economic, political, and social life of their communities; and, as such, forms the basis for participatory democracy.

A question of balance: the role of libraries in providing alternatives to the mainstream media

Discusses the importance of the alternative press and what libraries can do to ensure a healthy alternative press. Argues that libraries must counter the illusion that the current media offers more choice. They need to: prioritize the acquisition and cataloguing of alternative press publications; encourage professional associations to promote the alternative press more actively; and “adopt” alternative publishers. Concludes that libraries can offer sanctuaries for alternative voices and should ensure that they have diverse collections that truly represent the full spectrum of published opinion.

Libraries and Strong Democracy: Moving from an Informed to a Participatory 21st Century Citizenry

At a recent public forum at a small New Jersey library, local citizens told strategic planners that they were pleased with their access to a diversity of resources and programs offered by the library. But they also voiced concerns about the loss of access to local information now that the community’s biweekly newspaper ceased publication. Moreover, they expressed a desire to go beyond traditional library programming so they could interact with each other about local concerns no longer communicated through trusted local media. No doubt, forum attendees recognize the essential role of information to participation in community life -a role well-articulated by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy (Knight Commission, 2009). In its 2009 report, the Commission stated, “The time has come for new thinking and aggressive action to ensure the information opportunities of America’s people, the information health of its communities, and the information vitality of our democracy” (Knight Commission, 2009, p. 1). In an era when citizens yearn for more participation in civic life, traditional news media have abandoned local communities in New Jersey and beyond. Understandably, some have turned to libraries to fill the information and engagement voids left in their communities.

Libraries: Reuniting the Divided States of America

To fulfill their civic mission in today’s polarized America, libraries must turn outward and actively engage citizens by bringing them together and involving them in democratic discourse. In the digital age, this means moving beyond libraries as book warehouses—breaking through their “edifice complexes” by reimagining their roles from collection-focused to engagement-centered services. Working closely with a diversity of partners, libraries can help rekindle civic engagement, promote greater citizen participation, and foster community problem solving. But listening to communities, curating local information, and convening deliberative conversations necessitates the adoption of new competencies by librarians and citizens alike. As the nation’s great experiment in democracy comes under increasing threat, librarians must shift from a mission that not only informs but also engages constituents. In this role, libraries will be repositioned as the cornerstone of strong democracy, bringing people together to make tough choices and to bridge divides in their communities.

Libraries and Civic Engagement

For the first two-thirds of the 20th 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. (Putnam 2000, p. 27)