Civic Library to Host Public Forum on Local Governance and Civic Participation
The forum is the library's most ambitious civic programming effort in recent years and reflects a view that libraries have a role to play in the health of public discourse.
The Brookline Central Library will host a public forum next month on local governance and civic participation, an event that library director Anita Forsythe described as the most substantial civic programming effort the library has undertaken in recent years. The forum, organized jointly with a consortium of civic organizations, will include panel discussions, small-group sessions, and a public question-and-answer period with local officials.
The event reflects a philosophy that Forsythe has articulated since her arrival at the library several years ago: that libraries are civic institutions in a fuller sense than their collections alone suggest, and that they have a particular role to play in communities where other venues for civic exchange have become less available or less functional. "We have the space, we have the trust, and we have a mission that is fundamentally about informed participation," she said. "That seems like a reasonable basis for doing this kind of work."
The forum is free and open to the public. Registration is available through the library's website. Organizers said they expected significant attendance and encouraged early registration.