Civic Engagement and Libraries
Recommended Reading
By Nancy Kranich, Civic Librarian
Past President, American Library Association
March 2008

  • Baldwin, Michael. (October 15, 2002). “Can Libraries Save Democracy?” Library Journal, 127, # 17 (October 15, 2002). http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA250022?display=searchResults&stt=001&text=can+libraries+save+democracy
  • Barber, Benjamin. (2003). Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in an Age of Interdependence. New York: Norton.
  • Barber, Benjamin. (1998). A Place for Us: How to Make Society Civil and Strong. New York: Hill and Wang.
  • Barber, Benjamin. (1984). Strong Democracy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Bellah, Robert, et. al. (1991). The Good Citizen. New York: Knopf
  • Bellah, Robert, et. al. (1985, updated 1996). Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Updated Edition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Boyte, Harry & Kari, Nancy. (1996). Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  • Boyte, Harry. (1989). Commonwealth: A Return to Citizen Politics. New York: The Free Press.
  • Boyte, Harry. (2004). Everyday Politics: The Power of Public Work. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
  • Boyte, Harry & Evans, Sarah. (1986). Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America. New York: Harper and Row.
  • Boyte, Harry. (2004). Going Public: Academics and Public Life. Dayton, OH: Kettering Foundation. http://www.kettering.org/Foundation_Publications/Publication2/PublicChoice-H-Boyte.pdf
  • Durrance, Joan. Pettigrew, Karen., M. Jourdan, &,K. Scheuerer. (2001). “Libraries and Civil Society,” in Libraries and Democracy: the Cornerstones of Liberty. Chicago, IL: American Library Association: 49-59.
  • Elkin, Stephen L. and Karol Edward Soltan, eds., (1999). Citizen Competence and Democratic Institutions, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State U. Press.
  • Fishkin, James. (1995). The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale U. Press.
  • Fishkin, James. (1997). Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform. New Haven, CT: Yale U. Press.
  • Gagnon, Paul. (Sept. 2003). Educating Democracy: State Standards to Ensure a Civic Core. Washington, DC: Albert Shanker Institute. http://www.shankerinstitute.org/Downloads/gagnon/contents.html
  • Gastil, John and Peter Levine. (2005). The Deliberative Democracy Handbook. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
  • Harvard School of Public Health–MetLife Foundation, Initiative on Retirement and Civic Engagement. (2004). Reinventing Aging: Babyboomers and Civic Engagement, Cambridge, MA: Center for Health Communication. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/chc/reinventingaging/Report.pdf
  • Harwood Institute. (2003). Making It Real: How to Make Civic Engagement a Public Sensibility. Bethesda, MD: The Harwood Institute.
  • Harwood, Richard. (2005). Hope Unraveled: The Peoples Retreat and Our Way Back. Dayton, OH: Kettering Foundation.
  • Henton, Douglas, John Melville, & Kim Walesh. (2004). Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Herzig, Maggie and Laura Chasin. (2006). Fostering Dialogue Across Divides: A Nuts and Bolts Guide from the Public Conversations Project. Watertown, MA: Public Conversations Project.
  • Kranich, Nancy, Michele Reid and Taylor Willingham. (July/August, 2004). “Civic Engagement and Academic Libraries,” College and Research Libraries News, 65, #4: 380-383, 388, 393. Downloadable text available at: http://www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=3856&catID=2871
  • Kranich, Nancy. (March/April 2006). “The Civic Mission of School Libraries,” Knowledge Quest, vol. 34, #4,: 10-17, http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqarchives/volume34/KQ_34n4_Kranich.pdf
  • Kranich, Nancy. (Winter 2005). “Civic Partnerships: The Role of Libraries in Promoting Civic Engagement,” in “Creative Collaborations: Libraries Within Their Institutions and Beyond,” Resource Sharing and Information Networks 17, # 1 & 2. Downloadable text available at: http://www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=3856&catID=2871
  • Kranich, Nancy. (Ed.) (2001). Libraries and Democracy: The Cornerstones of Liberty. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.
  • Kranich, Nancy. (November 15, 2001). “Libraries Create Social Capital,” Library Journal 126, #19 (November 15, 2001): 40-41. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA180511.html
  • Kranich, Nancy, Anne Heanue and Taylor Willingham. (January 2003) “Libraries—Public Forums for Today’s Critical Issues,” American Libraries, 34, #1: 68-70. Downloadable text available at: http://www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=3856&catID=2871
  • Kranich, Nancy. (October 2004). “Promoting Civic Engagement through the Campus Library,” Friends of Libraries USA (FOLUSA) Newsletter 27, # 5: 9, 11. Downloadable text available at: http://www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=3856&catID=2871
  • League of Women Voters. (2005). “Citizens Building Communities: The ABCs of Public Dialogue.” Washington, DC: League of Women Voters.
  • Leib, Ethan J. (2004). Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Press.
  • Lukensmeyer, Carolyn J. and Lars Hasselblad Torres. (2006). Deliberation: A Manager’s Guide to Public Engagement. Washington, DC: IBM Center for the Business of Government. http://www.businessofgovernment.org/pdfs/LukensmeyerReport.pdf
  • Lukas, Carol & Linda Hoskins. (2003). Conducting Community Forums: Engaging Citizens, Mobilizing Communities. St. Paul, MN: Wilder Center for Communities.
  • Matthews, David. (1999). Politics for People, 2nd ed. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
  • Mathews, David. & McAfee, Noelle. (2001). Making Choices Together: The Power of Public Deliberation. Dayton, OH: Charles F. Kettering Foundation.
  • McCabe, Ronald. (2001). Civic Librarianship: Renewing the Social Mission of the Public Library. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
  • McConnell, Brian. (1999). Civil Society: The Underpinnings of American Democracy. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
  • McCook, Kathleen. (2000). A Place at the Table: Participating in Community Building. Chicago: American Library Association.
  • Milner, Henry. (2002). Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
  • Molz, R. Kathleen & Dain, Phyllis. (1999). Civic Space/Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Digital Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Mutz, Diana. (2006). Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy, Cambridge.
  • Pennsylvania State University Public Broadcasting. (2002). Digital Alliances--Partnerships in Public Service: Models for Collaboration. (Washington, DC: Benton Foundation. http://www.benton.org/publibrary/partners/pips.pdf
  • Putnam, Robert D., Lewis M. Feldstein, with Don Cohen. (2003). Better Together: Restoring the American Community, New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • Putnam, Robert. (December 2000). Better Together: The Report of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Kennedy School of Government.
  • Putnam, Robert. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • Putnam, Robert. (February 11, 2002). “Bowling Together,” The American Prospect 13 #3: 20-22.
  • Saunders, Harold H. (1999). Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
  • Schudson, Michael. (1998). The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life. New York: Free Press.
  • Schull, Diantha. (2004). “The Civic Library: A Model for 21st Century Participation,” Advances in Librarianship, vol 28: 55-82.
  • Sirianni, Carmen & Lewis Friedland. (2001). Civic Innovation in America: Community Empowerment, Public Policy, and the Movement for Civic Renewal. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Skocpol, Theda. (2003). Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Skocpol, Theda & Morris Fiorina, eds. (1999). Civic Engagement in American Democracy. Washington, DC: Brookings/Russell Sage.
  • Study Circles Resource Center. (2001). Organizing Community-wide Dialogue for Action and Change: A Step-by-step Guide. Pomfret, CT: Study Circles Resource Center. http://www.studycircles.org//en/Resource.39.aspx
  • Verba, Sydney, Kay Lehman Scholzman, & Henry Brady. (1995). Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Williams, Terry Tempest. (2004). The Open Space of Democracy. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Orion Books.
  • Willingham, Taylor. (2008). “Libraries as Civic Agents,” Public Libraries, forthcoming 2008.
  • Yankelovich, Daniel. (1991). Coming to Public Judgment: Making Democracy Work in a Complex World. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
  • Yankelovich, Daniel. (1999). The Magic of Dialogue. New York: Simon and Schuster.