Lecture to explore library’s role in public engagement

What if libraries, instead of bringing the world to a community, served to bring the community to the world?

That shift is already underway, says Mita Williams. She will discuss the implications in her free public lecture, “The library as interface to public space and public self,” on Friday, April 13, in the Leddy Library.

Williams, user experience librarian in the Leddy’s information services department, will explore the library’s potential to help bridge the digital divide and help people to engage with each other.

“When you hold a public event in a library, people in the room start sharing information,” she says. “So in a sense, the information is not just read, but created. We are at this really great intersection where libraries are starting to improve their own communities by facilitating this human interaction.”

The lecture, part of the Librarian Research Series, will begin at 11 a.m. Friday in room 302, West Leddy.

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