Advocacy, Outreach and Collaboration
Preconference
Clara Chu
Director, Mortenson Center
University of Illinois
Libraries are community anchors, playing a key role in developing peaceful and sustainable communities. Across the world, local communities may be experiencing challenges and conflict, and need a space to raise and identify common concerns, formulate action and tackle systemic barriers. Libraries are in a position to develop community capacity building processes to advance community knowledge, intercultural understanding, empowerment and solutions. The Community-Library Inter-Action (CLIA) Project responds to this need by supporting libraries to facilitate local dialogue and community action. In this context libraries contribute to the collective action and impact on the part of libraries worldwide to advance peaceful and sustainable communities. CLIA engages three core elements:
1. democratic dialogue
2. social cohesion, inclusion, equality and diversity
3. informed civil and civic action
CLIA is a Mortenson Center for International Library Programs Project (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA) http://www.library.illinois.edu/mortenson/ in partnership with Take Part Research Cluster (Lincoln University, UK) http://takepartresearchcluster.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/. CLIA is a project of the Mortenson Center's Libraries for Peace Initiative librariesforpeace.org An international CLIA community is implementing CLIA processes, and sharing and supporting each other's journey. CLIA workshops have been taught in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia.
The CLIA Guide, co-developed in the United States and Colombia, presents processes that enable libraries to strengthen their role as community anchors by working WITH, not just FOR communities. Libraries practicing Community-Library Inter-Action play a meaningful role in supporting community capacity building for social transformation.