Library professionals have long been community problem-solvers. The Civic Librarian Project, created by faculty at the University of Michigan School of Information, builds on this tradition by equipping public librarians with the tools and resources to address civic challenges using 21st century technology. 

“We think of solving civic problems through information as an extension of what librarians have always done, which is to serve the lives of their patrons,” says Cliff Lampe, professor and associate dean for academic affairs at UMSI, who co-founded the project alongside UMSI lecturer Scott TenBrink. 

Civic problems take many forms. They might include improving safety for bicyclists and drivers sharing the road, preventing clogged drains in cities with aging infrastructure, and helping commuters navigate traffic disruptions caused by construction. These problems — whether dire or day-to-day — shape the well-being of a community.

Funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Civic Librarian Project is an open-access, six-module course designed to help librarians create resident-centered solutions and partner effectively with local governments. Each module features video lessons by Lampe and TenBrink, case studies from Michigan communities, and activities that invite librarians to apply what they’ve learned to challenges in their own communities. 

Lampe and TenBrink’s goal was to introduce the principles of civic technology to the library profession. Civic tech includes tools and services meant to inform and engage citizens or improve government services. Think of SeeClickFix — the website and app that allow residents to report non-emergency issues to their local government — or the Ann Arbor snow plow tracking map that displays plow locations with personable names, like “Han Snowlo” and “Ctrl Salt Delete.” 

For civic technologies to serve the needs of a community, they need to be developed based on community input — an area in which library professionals excel. They are skilled in data collection and information management, and many are deeply embedded in their communities. 

“Libraries are trusted community institutions and thought of as neutral conveners,” TenBrink says. These are superpowers librarians can leverage, he emphasizes, especially in facilitating public conversations and forging partnerships with their local governments.

How to make an idea real

More than a decade ago, when he was an associate professor aiming to create civic engagement opportunities for UMSI students, Lampe recognized a potential pitfall.

“How could the school provide opportunities for community engagement in a way that wasn't extractive of a community, that was productive for both parties, that really helped people?” 

The answer came in the form of a project-based course, Citizen Interaction Design, launched in 2013. CID allows UMSI students to partner with Michigan communities to identify a civic problem, then create an information tool or service to help solve it.

“We would sign memorandums of understanding with the city that committed us to being there for at least three years, so they were assured that we weren't just ducking out once our needs were met,” Lampe says.  

With a background in urban planning and experience collaborating with government and nonprofit organizations, TenBrink came to UMSI to serve as community manager for the program. Over the years, CID has expanded to include co-curricular programs like the Civic User Testing Group — launched by TenBrink in 2019 — and has worked with a dozen Michigan communities on more than 150 civic tech projects. 

This Civic Librarian Project takes this successful process, developed at UMSI over more than a decade, and makes it available to library professionals across the state and nation. The case studies in each module come directly from UMSI student projects — simply press play to see civic tech in action.

In one case study, hear from UMSI students who collaborated with the Capital Area District Library and city government in Lansing, Mich., to foster better engagement with public records: nearly a century’s worth of bound volumes that had recently been digitized. 

“To take something that’s lived in a vault for 20 years, that’s only accessible to engineers, and to sort of shift that into the mindset of the more general user — that’s something we can do in the library,” says Heidi Butler, local history specialist for the Capital Area District Library.

The students’ challenge was not just to make Lansing citizens aware of this resource, but to help citizens see how it could be relevant to their lives. They took inspiration from Pokémon GO, creating a prototype for a gamified app called “Lens-ing” that invites users to explore the city of Lansing through its public records. 

The project generated excitement from Lansing’s community development manager, Erin Buitendorp, as a way to engage younger residents and foster deeper ties to the city. “I think that’s going to help us from a local government standpoint,” Buitendorp says.

Watching this video, you see a real example of how partnerships between libraries and local governments can be mutually beneficial. You also see how an information solution — digitizing paper records — can be further adapted to serve the needs of a community through the use of civic technology. 

Move through all the modules in the Civic Librarian Project, and you’ll learn how to conduct user interviews, develop a design prototype, forge partnerships with government officials, and measure the success of a project over time. It’s a go-at-your-own-pace tool kit that builds on librarians’ existing expertise.

State Librarian of Michigan Randy Riley, who served on the project’s advisory board, believes this is the future of the profession. 

“Librarians and libraries already play a huge role in their communities,” Riley says. “Encouraging local governments to see public libraries as potential partners and collaborators is a no-brainer. The Civic Librarian Project helps provide today’s librarians with the tools needed to better connect with their communities in meaningful ways.”

It’s a project in keeping with UMSI’s roots, as a library school that carried the traditions of service and universal access forward into the digital age — becoming, in 1996, the School of Information, a place where user experience design, data science and digital archives are equally at home. 

“We want to reach out to our alumni and to other librarians across the country to see what they can add to it,” Lampe says. “My goal for the project would actually be that while we host it, we don't own it. That it becomes something that’s much more community-driven.”

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Help spread the word about this resource to librarians, government officials, students and educators in your community. Have ideas, questions or stories of how you’ve applied the course material? Cliff Lampe and Scott TenBrink would love to hear from you at  [email protected].

A COMMUNITY EFFORT

Many UMSI faculty, staff and students helped transform the Civic Librarian Project from an idea into a reality. Clinical professor of information Kristin Fontichiaro, a former elementary school librarian who has been instrumental in bringing makerspaces into school libraries, offered strategic guidance. Videography by Jeff Smith, UMSI’s multimedia producer, brought the case studies to life. UMSI alumna and lecturer of visual storytelling Julie Cruz designed the course website. 

This work was further shaped by insights from the project’s advisory board: Catherine D'Ignazio, assistant professor of Data Visualization at MIT; Randy Riley, State Librarian of Michigan; Michael Stephens, associate professor at San Jose State University School of Information; and David Votta, director of the Charlotte Community Library. 

The Civic Librarian Project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services RE-17-19-0036-19. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.