Supporting Civic Engagement in the Library: The Skokie Civic Lab Model

The need for and interest in news and civic literacy is at an all-time high following the 2016 general election. Skokie Public Library’s Civic Lab has been building community awareness of important topics. The Civic Lab provides access to curated resources, information, and events for patrons and the larger community to discuss and reflect on current civic topics. This webinar will explore the Civic Lab model for facilitating civic engagement. This will  include discussions about how to go beyond library collections to engage patrons in issues affecting the community, and to offer a responsive model for supporting both civic engagement and civic literacy in the library.

Learning Objectives

After participating in this webinar, you’ll be able to:

• Advocate for the role of the public library as a convener of civic engagement opportunities in the community
• Identify strategies and topics for engaging community members in thought-provoking ideas and dialogue beyond traditional programming
• Design civic engagement opportunities for a range of library audiences that are both relevant to the community and developmentally appropriate
• Engage library staff at all levels in civic engagement initiatives across the library