Democratic Practice: Libraries and Education for Citizenship

It is now six years since the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement released A Crucible Moment, with its call for colleges and universities in the United States to renew their commitment to the development of an informed and engaged citizenry.¹ The report was a response to a series of sobering trends. Some were long-standing, such as the low rate of voter participation among younger voters and poor performance on surveys of political knowledge among all segments of the population, but particularly among the marginalized. Other trends were more recent, such as a widely perceived rise in incivility and hyperpolarization. In today's political climate, which many experts view as even further polarized, the report's diagnosis of the enfeebled state of American democracy seems almost mild. Its recommendations, however, retain their cogency. The report contends that effective training for responsible citizenship requires not only the study of democratic institutions but also actual practice in democratic engagement.²

While libraries are hardly mentioned in A Crucible Moment, library spaces, collections, and expertise have a vital role to play in civic engagement efforts on campus. In fact, academic libraries are essential to the success of such efforts and well placed to lead these initiatives.

Libraries and Democracy

The relationship between libraries and civic engagement is not new. Arguably the fundamental role of a library is for that very purpose—maximizing communally funded spaces, collections, and expertise to educate and inform in the broadest sense possible.

Public libraries, defined as a collection not affiliated with a parent institution such as a church or school, have existed for millennia. Recently, the remains of what appears to be an ancient library that dates to the Roman Empire were excavated in Germany. Archaeologists believe the structure, "in the middle of Cologne, in the marketplace or forum: the public space in the city centre" may once have housed 20,000 scrolls, available for use by local citizens.³

Democratic Practice: Libraries and Education for Citizenship

But the public library—not always free nor accessible to all—evolved into its modern identity largely through the vision and generosity of Andrew Carnegie. A Scotsman born into a family of modest means, Carnegie grew up in Pittsburgh, where he succeeded in industry with no formal education, learning through books lent to him by a retired local merchant. From this experience, he came to believe "there was no use to which money could be applied so productive[ly] . . . as the founding of a public library."⁴ Inspired by the philanthropist Enoch Pratt, Carnegie envisioned that "his libraries would bring books and information to all people."⁵ According to the Carnegie Corporation, "Carnegie had two main reasons for supporting libraries. First, he believed that in America, anyone with access to books and the desire to learn could . . . be successful, as he had been. Second, Carnegie, an immigrant, felt America's newcomers needed to acquire cultural knowledge of the country, which a library would help make possible."⁶

By funding thousands of public libraries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Carnegie helped make possible the cultivation of a widely engaged citizenry. Notably, the vast sums Carnegie invested in this enterprise did not include sustaining endowments. He believed strongly that municipalities should demonstrate a commitment to this venture—affording all citizens equitable access to information—by providing fiscal support for libraries. Very quickly, public libraries became thriving marketplaces of ideas and social centers for gathering and mobilizing. These public libraries filled a critical need during an era when higher education was not accessible as broadly as it would become by the latter half of the twentieth century.

Around the same time, the concept of a Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was born. Building upon practices for the distribution of congressional documents to state libraries, historical societies, and universities dating from the early nineteenth century, the Printing Act of 1895 exponentially expanded the reach of government information. It overhauled existing laws and reformed approaches to acquiring, printing, and disseminating content from all three branches of government. The Printing Act vested...