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A lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ+) community’s hunger for its history became an arena for creative, unorthodox work involving a library and information science (LIS) educator, librarians and other educators, and even a university library. The result was fundamentally collaborative, involving community and educational organizations; all inspired by social responsibility and community engagement goals, some of which can be found in a university mission statement. The story of these individuals and organizations begins with a drive toward a greater awareness of LGBTQ+ history, a goal that led to creating inclusive high school history curricula. Along the way, these efforts generated information resources such as a community-generated database, a temporary history exhibit, a conference, and a workshop geared to gay straight alliance (GSA) organizations in high schools. GSAs and their statewide supporting organization, the Illinois Safe School Alliance, were also the part of this work. While the larger goal of this work was to help diverse constituencies understand the importance of their history by developing, curating, and utilizing information resources that fulfill overlooked community information needs, this chapter comes to focus on a piece of that work, the development of Illinois’s first LGBTQ+ history elective. Consequently, this chapter can show how librarians and libraries can actualize social justice aims and thereby expand traditional library practices through sustained efforts that may lead to smaller specific goals, some of which may develop in unforeseen ways. The key is to expand the existing aims of libraries into sustained community engagement while remaining open to the opportunities that arise along the way.

This qualitative study was carried out in Candangolaˆndia, in Brasilia’s surroundings, Brazil. It comprised procedures that aimed to test the use of participatory research and action (PRA) in interactive and multidirectional communication amongst community members, in order to enable them to work together in the identification, access and use of information to solve social problems. The assumption behind this proposal was that as doing so, citizens develop abilities of information literacy and capabilities of collaborative work. The research tested the efficacy of PRA specifically in information science, using principles of critical thinking and participatory techniques within an epistemological interpretative approach in the identification of community information needs, access and use. Specific techniques such as oral presentation, people introduction, cards, games, brainstorm, workgroups, discussion, and question and answer were applied in 24 activities performed during six meetings with an intentionally selected group of citizens. The set of activities in each meeting was related to the meeting objective. Data analysis was based on grounded theory principles, particularly the coding process. Findings confirmed that PRA is a suitable methodology to explore abilities of information literacy and attitudes of collaborative work as a result of an interactive and multidirectional communication. In fact, community participants were able to identify, classify and prioritise information needs, as well as use information solutions for a selected social problem. Ultimately, these actions have proved to be helpful for participants to develop a heightened sense of citizenship.

This chapter analyzes the link between the digital divide, infrastructure regulation, and disaster planning and relief through a case study of the flood in San Jose, California triggered by the Anderson dam’s overtopping in February 2017 and an examination of communication failures during the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, California. This chapter theorizes that regulatory decisions construct social and disaster vulnerability. Rooted in the Whole Community approach to disaster planning and relief espoused by the United Nations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this chapter calls for leadership to end the digital divide. It highlights the imperative of understanding community information needs and argues for linking strategies to close the digital divide with infrastructure and emergency planning. As the Internet’s integration into society increases, the digital divide diminishes access to societal resources including disaster aid, and exacerbates wildfire, flood, pandemic, and other risks. To mitigate climate change, climate-induced disaster, protect access to social services and the economy, and safeguard democracy, it argues for digital inclusion strategies as a centerpiece of community-centered infrastructure regulation and disaster relief.

In 2015, the UN General Assembly introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2014, in anticipation of the SDGs, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) released the Lyon Declaration, asserting that the right to access information, and the skills to use it, is essential for development. Simply put, there can be no sustainable development without access to information. So, as the world looks toward sustainable development in the information age, what role should libraries play in meeting communities’ needs? Sustainable development, whether on a local or global scale, requires that people have access to information in order to improve their abilities to make informed choices about their lives, livelihoods, and communities. Sustainable development is important for all communities, everywhere, and access to information is just one way libraries can contribute to development initiatives. Libraries, especially public libraries, provide not only traditional access to information but also engaged services and programs that are community centered. This chapter will explore the ways in which the profession at large is plugging into the SDGs, with a particular focus on the work that IFLA is doing to connect libraries to development. It will highlight a specific form of community development – Asset-Based Community Development, which focuses on using the strengths and capacities that already exist in communities of all sizes and economic statuses – as a theoretical and practical model to help librarians understand and leverage their own assets as they collaborate with their communities on building individual and community capacity. It will argue that an asset-based approach to integrating our services into the larger trend of sustainable community development can provide us with both direction for day-to-day engagement with our communities and an important way to reimagine our value.

This chapter introduces the focus of this volume – the many ways in which libraries and librarians are helping to increase people’s health literacy and reduce health disparities in their communities. The rampant and rapidly increasing health injustices that occur every day throughout the world are, in large part, caused and exacerbated by health information injustice – something which libraries and librarians are playing an instrumental role in addressing by ensuring the physical and intellectual accessibility of information for all. This chapter opens with an introduction to the central concepts of health justice and health information injustice, focusing on the many information-related factors that shape the degree to which individuals have the information they need to be able to have a sufficient and truly equitable chance to live a long and healthy life. Next, the authors present a timely case study to emphasize the importance of health information justice, looking at the dire importance of health literacy as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors then provide a brief glimpse into their 13 contributed chapters, grouped into five categories: (1) Public Libraries/Healthy Communities; (2) Health Information Assessment; (3) Overcoming Barriers to Health Information Access; (4) Serving Disadvantaged Populations; and (5) Health Information as a Communal Asset. In conclusion, the authors discuss their aims for this volume, particularly that readers will become more aware of librarians’ efforts to address health disparities in their communities and excited about participating in and expanding these efforts, moving us closer to health justice.

Public libraries are incubators for collective action in the knowledge economy. As three case studies from the United States and Singapore demonstrate, public libraries can serve as influential champions that garner financial resources, communicate an urgent need for change, and respond to the unmet information and economic needs of marginalized individuals and communities. In the Raise Up Radio (RUR) case, public librarians engaged schools, museums, youth, and families in rural communities to develop and deliver STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) content over local radio stations. In collaboration with organizational partners, RUR librarians created a model for library-community-radio projects for the rural United States. In the What Health Looks Like (WHLL) case, public librarians engaged senior citizens in discussions of health and the creation of health comics. In partnership with an interdisciplinary health research team, WHLL librarians developed a pilot for library-community-public health projects aimed at information dissemination and health narrative generation. In the Singapore shopping mall libraries case, the National Library Board (NLB) created public libraries in commercial spaces serving working families, senior citizens, and the Chinese community. The NLB developed an exportable model for locating information centers in convenient, popular, and useful business spaces. These case studies demonstrate how libraries are nodes in the knowledge economy, providing vital services such as preservation of cultural heritage, technology education, community outreach, information access, and services to working families, small- and medium-size businesses, and other patrons. In the years to come, public libraries will be called upon to respond to shifting social norms, inequitable opportunities, emergencies and disasters, and information asymmetries. As the cases of RUR, WHLL, and the shopping mall libraries show, public librarians have the vision and capacities to serve as influential champions for collective action to solve complex problems and foster sustainable development and equitable participation in the knowledge economy.

Consumer health literacy is a necessary skill in all facets of library work, from reference desk to programming to website development. In this chapter, the authors present key terms in the domain of health literacy; challenges and controversies in research and public library practice; and findings from a recent study of public library workers meeting consumer health information needs. Finally, the authors present examples of National Library of Medicine (NLM) initiatives for public libraries and public librarians focusing on bridging health literacy gaps. Socially disadvantaged groups who are the most affected by health disparities tend to be those who are lower-income, have less education, and are not White. The combined effects of environment and socioeconomic status mean that these communities have particular, highly local challenges in addressing their health issues, as individuals and as a population. Health literacy can serve as the enabling factor in obtaining quality health information, navigating healthcare, and seeking better health. To support the public, NLM and its National Network of Libraries of Medicine have placed a strategic emphasis on public libraries in order to develop long-term partnerships. The goals of these partnerships are to support staff development and programming, and to promote resource-sharing about programs and activities focusing on health information. Public libraries are everywhere and open to all. This makes them the ideal community agency to reach out to the public and implement national information initiatives.

While LIS scholarship emphasizes the need to be multi-literate by equipping people with critical information literacy, digital literacy, and media literacy skills to combat the phenomenon of fake news in the contemporary information society, the concept of political information literacy is still in its infancy. This chapter addresses this gap by developing an understanding of political information literacy and challenges the premise that information professionals and information organizations should remain neutral in the face of phenomena like censorship through noise and disinformation. In this endeavor, it reviews contemporary information environments vis-à-vis the growth of fake news and misinformation, and current information literacy approaches utilized by information organizations. Thereafter, it explores several cognitive barriers, such as the role of confirmation bias, information avoidance, information groupishness, and information overload, which affects people’s ability to process information. Finally, it encourages information professionals to hold regular information sessions on politically charged topics, tackle the cognitive factors increasing misinformation, and cultivate multidisciplinary approaches to confront fake news.

Purpose – As change creates more uncertainty for library practitioners, graduate library education needs to explore how best to prepare students to manage ambiguity through new approaches to identifying and solving challenging problems. We advocate for incorporating design into graduate library education.

Design/Methodology/Approach – First, we discuss the need for a design approach to librarianship. We then introduce the nature of design thinking and philosophy and discuss the ways in which it is already present in librarianship. We review past developments and recent trends with a special focus on the ways in which design thinking, methods, and philosophies are (or are not) incorporated into library and information science (LIS) education.

Findings – We synthesize these findings to propose recommendations and suggestions for an alternative degree program to the traditional Master of Library Science (MLS): the Master of Library Design (MLD). This includes the presentation of a new model of library education that blends design philosophy with traditional library science content.

Originality/Value – This is the first compilation in the library literature to propose the development of a new type of library degree that we refer to as the MLD; hence, it has a high level of originality. While the library literature has examples of practitioners applying design thinking to improve library services, this chapter’s value is that it promotes the integration of design thinking and philosophy more broadly in order to better equip future library professionals for a rapidly changing information landscape.