If we ask why the profession has given mainly lip service to something that, in theory, ought to be one of its basic functions, perhaps one answer is that the concept of the civic library has lacked a clear outline and mechanism by which it may be discussed, made an operational reality, or evaluated. The most
recent analysis of the library’s civic aspect is Ronald McCabe’s Civic Librarianship, published in 2001, which thoroughly traces the strands of thinking about libraries as social and civic institutions, and discusses what he sees as two competing professional perspectives, the “libertarian” and the
“communitarian.” He argues that the libertarian perspective, which emphasizes the individual patron and personal rights, has undermined the profession’s traditional commitment to its fundamental educational and civic mission. Calling for a restoration of the library’s “democratic social authority” through a focus on its capacity for building communities, he offers the following “working definition”: “Civic librarianship seeks to strengthen communities through development strategies that renew the public library’s mission of education for a democratic society.” McCabe recommends “strategies for action,” including “promoting community identity, dialogue, collaboration and evaluation,” but does not try to imagine what a civic library would look like (pp. 32ff, 85ff, 77, 79, 81).
The lack of a practical framework for bringing the Civic Library into action may be rooted in the fact that leading library educators and theorists are interested in different civic aspects of the library and do not ordinarily look at these aspects as part of a coherent whole. For instance, there is a very significant body of research and advocacy for the role of libraries as local information organizers and aggregators within the larger movement to create community information networks. Joan Durrance, of the University of Michigan School of Information Science, and her colleague Karen Pettigrew have documented the evolution, organization, content and impacts of community information networks and analyzed those with strong roots in public libraries.1Their perspective is informed by a special focus on the role of libraries as community institutions within emerging digital information systems. Their work is unusual in that they have worked closely with some public libraries to foster new practices in the realm of library-community information networks. The Flint Community Networking Initiative, referenced below, has benefited from Durrance’s efforts to partner with the Flint Public Library.
The Durrance and Pettigrew perspective is not antithetical to, and in fact operates parallel with, another perspective focusing on the broader definition of the library as a community center and a key institution in the larger movement to “build communities.” Sarah Long and Ron McCabe, mentioned earlier, and Kathleen de la Pen˜a McCook are among those whose writings and teaching relate libraries to the communitarian movement
1See, for example, Durrance’s bio on the University Michigan website,www.intel.si.umich.
edu/cfdocs/si/courses/people/faculty-detail.cfm?passID¼32; and the “Library Highlights for 2002” page of the IMLS website,www.imls.gov/closer/archive/hlt_l1202.htm.
and the general notion of community building. Their leadership has advanced professional trends with respect to the provision of public spaces and functions that promote social interaction and community identity and, at the same time, have promoted community-library partnerships and collaboration. McCook’s online newsletter, A Librarian at Every Table (McCook), has helped foster awareness and understanding of community building as an important function of the community librarian.
Another parallel and important aspect of the civic library discussion has been led by librarians, including Nancy Kranich, concerned about access to information and the library’s role in ensuring information equity in the digital age. As the library community has struggled to grapple with the profound impacts of new technologies, including, but not limited to, issues of intellectual property, privacy and the commercialization of information, they have also led efforts to protect the public’s right to government and other information. This work has underscored the continuing importance of the library from a democratic perspective, and has led to renewed appreciation within the profession of the inherent importance of the library as a vehicle for actualizing democracy through ensuring access to information.
Some library theorists are working on new roles for libraries, roles that may extend traditional functions or that may lead to new opportunities. One of these is the movement to re-think the connecting role of the library, broadening its functions from connecting people to information to connecting people to community service and work opportunities. They see libraries as important community-based vehicles for citizen engagement.
Another of these is the movement to use libraries as a platform for engaging communities in the design of new community information systems, both virtual and actual. Ann Bishop and her colleagues at the University of Illinois School of Information are taking the lead in this work, some of which is organized around the concept of Community Inquiry Labs, noted above, which links community activists with public libraries in new ways that engage stakeholders in redesigning the institutional and electronic links between members of a community.2
These various approaches to viewing the library may vary in their theoretical aspects but are all rooted in the same philosophical perspective, which sees libraries as essential to democratic culture. In this respect they are all part of a larger whole—the whole civic library. What the approaches lack is a framework for connecting and institutionalizing the pieces as a comprehensive whole called the Civic Library.
2For Ann Bishop’s work see, as one example, the web page of the Paseo Boricua Community Library Project,www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/out.php?cilid¼1.