In this workshop, the presenters will introduce and advance librarians’ skills in convening and facilitating community conversations on issues of importance to their communities. Using deliberative dialogue, a neutrally moderated forum for people to come together with the goal of finding a shared direction to take based on what the group holds valuable, this workshop will help people explore the tensions in these issues, identify what they value, work through tough choices, and seek areas of common ground for action.

Ellen M. Knutson – Portland, Oregon based research associate at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation where she is a key member of the research team comprising Russian and US colleagues developing libraries as centers for public dialogue and deliberation. She is an adjunct assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois where she teaches a course on international librarianship to students in the online Master’s program. Knutson also serves on the advisory committee for the American Library Association’s Center for Civic Life and served as a trainer for the Libraries Transforming Communities initiative. Knutson received her MS and PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BA in Political Science from Reed College. She has written articles and book chapters on libraries as a community institution including: “Libraries and Community Engagement: From Informing to Engaging” in National Civic Review, “Libraries and Ecology in Post-Soviet Russia” in Advances in Library Administration and Organization: Culture, Context and History in the Post-Soviet World of Information Institutions, Resources and Practices, and “New Realities: Libraries in Post-Soviet Russia” in Library Trends.

Svetlana A. Gorokhova – Director for International and Educational Activities at the Margarita Rudomino All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature (LFL), where she supervises professional development programs in partnership with educational institutions in the U.S. and Europe and implements overall coordination of international activities of this federal library. She is Russian Library Association Governing Board Member and coordinator of RLA Section for International Cooperation. Since 1996, Gorokhova has facilitated joint research activities of the LFL and the Kettering Foundation, including a 20-year initiative: Library as a Community Center, uniting 7 regions of Russia—activities that served as the focal point for the first two U.S-Russia Dialogue meetings in March 2017 and May 2018. Currently, she also coordinates projects featuring the libraries of all sizes and types as agents of international communication. The workshop was part of Occupy Library 2020 event.

The workshop was part of Occupy Library 2020 event, and is suitable for all of those who wish to explore a trans-national experience of active citizenship and the role of libraries in partnership with NGOs in facilitating constructive dialogue.