Hi Joanne! These Dialogues have been conducted at more than 100 libraries, so there are a lot of answers to that question! There's a library who now does a weekly book drop-off at the nearby reservation, one that changed their signage to be more welcoming to new latinx immigrants, another who started a teen advisory group to specifically lead these dialogue efforts, and quite a few who have gained new partners (and funding) as a result to talking with the leaders in their community. Libraries are already fantastic at talking to their patrons, this isn't anything new, but  thinking outside the library and speaking to folks who may not already benefit from it's resources is encouraging libraries to further cement their role as community leaders!

Hello Leigh! Everything I've learned about Community Dialogues, I learned from Anne Holland and the STAR Net library: https://www.starnetlibraries.org/resources/comm...

Also, some tips would be to try to get a cross-section of your community with families as well as business leaders and community leaders present. Ask open-ended questions to encourage discussion and let your community do all the talking! Good luck in your endeavor!

Awww, Lisa is so nice!! Leigh, one of the big things I always like to tell people who may not be comfortable being facilitators, is don't! Have a community partner facilitate, or even better, have everyone sitting together with no set facilitator, and work as a group (easier with small groups obviously!). There's certainly no one right way to do a Dialogue (though of course I'm partial to Lisa's way!)

Hi Preeti! What I like to recommend is that folks first have an open ended conversation (likely with community leaders or stakeholders) to determine what that big idea should be. You'd be surprised how often it ends up being something that no one had thought about! These Dialogues are about unearthing the potential issues in a community, not necessarily already having a great idea and immediately jumping into it. 

Thank you, as we thinking about the place I work, American Museum of Natural History, and how we can become critical to rebuilding our local communities during this pandemic and when our physical building is closed, the key idea is to have these community dialogues in a way that is less about "what can the museum do for you" and more about "what are the needs of your community as related to science and science education"? We, at the museum, need to think very carefully how to structure these conversations! Looking forward to reviewing the resources you provided.

Hi Preeti!

I'm so glad to hear that AMNH is considering using this framework. Especially since you want to focus on the needs of the community! A big suggestion I make for museum folks is to hold the Dialogue somewhere outside of your venue. So many vulnerable populations have the mistaken idea that museums are not for them. What better way to disprove that myth than to meet them where they are? I'm happy to have a call if you want to talk more!

Hi Nickolay! Thank you for the comment, and I'd love to hear more about your community and the reimagination of its own public library. If you have any resources/more information to share on that story, I would really enjoy taking a look!

You are absolutely right in that libraries want full community buy-in and equitable representation when they conduct community dialogues. When we talk about these events with the libraries we work with, we encourage them to "think outside of the box" in terms of who they invite and include a variety of participants to encourage more diverse conversation. Instead of only inviting principals, teachers, and school board members for a conversation about STEM education, for example, we would encourage the library to reach out to other people that have a finger on the pulse of the community. In one community that we worked with, one of the most active participants in the dialogue was the owner of the local sandwhich shop. He wasn't necessarily a STEM educator or policy maker, but he heard day-in and day-out about the actual issues that the community faced. 

We have a robust Community Dialogue guide on our website where we cover how to plan a CD, who to invite, and much more! I will pass along the links below. 

• Community Dialogues - Who to Invite
• Community Dialogue Resources
• Community Dialogue Guide PDF
• Teen-led Community Dialogue Guide

Martin - that is a GREAT question. Community Dialogues can serve many purposes and have different goals. In the Community Dialogue Guide, we list some potential goals of a Community Dialogue, including: 

• Expand your understanding of patrons’ feelings about their local library and its programs, including programming related to STEM

• Obtain meaningful feedback from the community on who visits the library and why

• Have a conversation about how the library can better serve ethnically, economically, and geographically underserved and underrepresented audiences

• Better connect with local organizations and potential future partners that have shared interests with the library and community

More often than not, a Community Dialogue will accomplish more than one of these goals - or, accomplish something that wasn't even a goal from the start! So yes, forming cohesiveness within a STEM learning ecosystem can absolutely be one goal of a community dialogue. 

Martin, everything Brooks said above is absolutely correct. I also wanted to point out that I normally encourage libraries to START with those representatives of community organizations (community leaders and stakeholders), especially if the library staff isn't comfortable facilitating a big open group. These community leaders may not speak 100% for the communities they represent, but it's much easier to start this way, as it's so hard to build trust with populations you may be trying harder to engage with. 

It's great to see what Community Dialogue looks like in action through this video so thank you for sharing these resources! As a volunteer at my local library, I'm happy to point library personnel to the STAR Library Network.

Hello David! We have just begun to use the ideas that were generated from this dialogue and have used information from other dialogues to change programming and guide local branch decision-making. We hope that it goes up to the administrative level, but, as you know, things happen very slowly in public libraries - especially change!

That said, NOW is a great time to do virtual Community Dialogues that deal with providing services during the COVID-19 pandemic....

Thank you Lisa!  Yes, we've been doing some virtual dialogues about COVID-19 as well, including one back on March 8 right before our museum closed.  It's not the project we have a video for this year but I am part of an NSF-funded project on co-created public engagement with science in which community members and civic partners work together to determine the topics for our dialogue programs. We've really been grateful to our government partners because we know it's not easy to do this kind of engagement. We had a forum program scheduled last month about the housing crisis in Boston and had to pivot to online version which is less deliberative but still maintains some of the experiences we designed - you can explore that here:https://mos.consider.it/. I look forward to following along with this laudable project, and learning more from your progress!

Hi David!

Lisa's response is spot on, but I also wanted to add quite a few of our libraries in our NASA@ My Library program have in fact changed their mission statement and their organizational vision as a result of these dialogues. In most cases, it was to integrate partnerships and STEM into their mission directly. Others it was highlighting the libraries role in reaching populations that don't have other avenues. 

That's an affirming outcome - congrats!

Hi Megan!

Great question! Certainly library staff have been including those groups in their conversations, but the guide is very versatile, and we encourage other organizations to try the framework as well. You'd be surprised at how many people respond to such an invitation. Most of our libraries haven't had a hard time getting participants, they've had a hard time narrowing down!