Connecting Communities: Libraries as Invisible Infrastructure; National League of Cities, 2022

National League of Cities; Connecting Communities: Libraries as Invisible Infrastructure

"In collaboration with library professionals across the country and the Our Common Purpose Project at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, representatives of the New York Public Library and Memphis Public Library are currently partnering on Libraries as Bridges, an initiative aiming to both strengthen and better communicate the civic impact of our nation’s public libraries.

Libraries as Bridges is a learning network composed of library professionals that seeks to articulate and advance the role that libraries play in promoting social cohesion, civic renewal, and the ideals of our democracy. The initial work focuses on building an online toolkit where practitioners can connect to case studies and best practices for library programs with civic impact, guidance for communicating with external stakeholders and collaborating with each other. 

While the core of this work centers on conversations with library staff across the country, incorporating the perspective of civic and political leaders is crucial to achieving the initiative’s goals. Libraries As Bridges will create new opportunities for dialogue with local leaders across the country as work progresses, helping to collaboratively harness libraries’ civic impact to the fullest potential." 

Silicon Valley needs a new approach to studying ethics now more than ever; TechCrunch, April 24, 2020

Lisa Wehden, TechCrunch; Silicon Valley needs a new approach to studying ethics now more than ever

"These are fresh concerns in familiar debates about tech’s ethics. How should technologists think about the trade-off between the immediate need for public health surveillance and individual privacy? And misformation and free speech? Facebook and other platforms are playing a much more active role than ever in assessing the quality of information: promoting official information sources prominently and removing some posts from users defying social distancing.

As the pandemic spreads and, along with it, the race to develop new technologies accelerates, it’s more critical than ever that technology finds a way to fully examine these questions. Technologists today are ill-equipped for this challenge: striking healthy balances between competing concerns — like privacy and safety — while explaining their approach to the public...

If the only students are future technologists, though, solutions will lag. If we want a more ethically knowledgeable tech industry today, we need ethical study for tech practitioners, not just university students...

Over half of the class came from a STEM background and had missed much explicit education in ethical frameworks. Our class discussed principles from other fields, like medical ethics, including the physician’s guiding maxim (“first, do no harm”) in the context of designing new algorithms. Texts from the world of science fiction, like “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, also offered ways to grapple with issues, leading students to evaluate how to collect and use data responsibly."