A big part of what makes a community function is the ability everyone has to communicate with each other, everything from neighbors talking across the fence, to a budget report from the local government, to the welcome mat at the local public library.
Community is caring how we communicate, and in many communities two of the most important communicators are the local government and the local public library. When it comes to moving information around, they are the local professionals.
As professionals, both are being challenged to clearly demonstrate their effectiveness and their relevance. And it is a struggle: governments are being challenged by, among other things, misinformation, disinformation, and apathy, while the public library has had much of its main reason to exist transferred to the cloud. They both need help. And the help they need most is with their relationships to the people they serve.
Better connections often translates to improved networking and greater transparency – information that is more relevant to people’s lives. This is what communities need and what governments and public libraries can provide. Governments can offer a formal community risk management process, and public libraries can offer networking of nonprofit resources.