Topics to Spark Ideas

Sometimes it may help to start your community’s civic engagement journey through a specific topic the community cares about. Below are a few examples of such topics, which we encourage you to use as an inspiration for your own civic engagement service, or as a jumping board to further explore the subject.

Education In the Library

The Chicago Public Library’s series of themed engineering services that challenged middle schoolers to address engineering challenges in teams by using common craft supplies took a halting stop during the pandemic. However, with a ton of ingenuity and community engagement the library came up with solutions (like take home kits for the middle schoolers) to keep educational initiatives in the library strong. Read more about their services here

Democracy / Voting

At the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP), teens enrolled in the weeklong Civic Data Zine Camp at CLP’s Squirrel Hill branch to create narratives using data, while learning and expanding their data literacy in the process. Read more about this program here

Environmental Action in the Library

The Mill Valley Public Library, based in California, decided to structure their monthly author talks and film screenings in order to encourage community engagement in the issues surrounding climate change (calling the programming the “Borrowed Time” initiative). In their own words:

“Climate change can be overwhelming to comprehend so each month we will focus on a different aspect of climate change in depth through documentary film screenings, recommended readings, community conversations and actionable activities.”

These activities include

• Book Clubs with scientists to talk about their work, and hear the developments in the field
• Climate Change Conversation Cafés where the community comes together and talk about immediate issues and solutions for their immediate environment
• Locally sourced book clubs, where members can share their favorite stories about the actions they see happening around the world
• Film screenings that introduce what’s at stake from the consequences of climate change

Here are other examples of library programs on environmental action:

• Resilient Communities: Libraries Respond to Climate Change. A Programming Guide for Libraries (American Library Association).
• Brooklyn Public Library’s Borrowed Time initiatives. Includes workshops, a podcast, and other activities
• Massachusetts Library’s Blue Marble Blog.. Great resource with lots of resources, stories, and tools

Social Justice

“In 2017, Seattle Public Library spent the year exploring the social impact of mass incarceration in our city and country, as part of a series designed to empower and center communities throughout Seattle. The Criminal Justice Series leveraged traditional engagement techniques that reflect libraries’ “bread and butter” work of information sharing, awareness raising, and enrichment, including public programs, a social media campaign, art exhibit, and related booklists. What made it noteworthy as an instrument of civic engagement was that it relied on a community-led process that placed individuals who are directly affected by criminal justice at the center of program development while library staff played a supporting role”.

Read more about the Seattle Public Libraries initiatives.

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