The current moment we are experiencing is filled with a lot of questions, concerns and a desire to better understand one another. Through a mixture of presentation, reflection and conversation, this series helps bridge participants in a shared understanding of how the pandemic, repeated occurrences of police violence and coordinated national protests are connected to our dynamic histories — which are becoming more expansive via the information we collectively process and incorporate into our lexicon of media literacy.

Civic Lab events consist of:

• Two facilitators.
• An annotator who adds resources to the chat to add context to conversations.
• An archivist who gathers all resources shared during the event, shared with participants after each event.

Patrons are encouraged to cultivate a sense of co-creation and engagement by:

• Sharing their preferred news sources and supplemental information in a writable Google Doc.
• Sharing resources related to our conversations in the chat.
• Offering personal experiences and opinions via audio or chat.

We have seen an increase in the number of participants as well as those using the chat and/or coming off mute to join conversations. This signals to us the desire to connect with other participants and/or library staff through meaningful exchanges.

We have also received positive feedback:

• "I’m finding these [sessions] very informative and interesting."
• "With everything going on today, I want to know how it happens."
• "I enjoy the handouts, especially handouts that are sent afterwards or shared on the library website."