The idea of libraries as a commons, hub for services, information and connection speaks to me in the hyperlinked libraries examples Dr. Stephens offered in his lecture. Libraries have been activating more and more of these creative kinds of programs and designs to facilitate these community connections.  Lately, I have been hearing more about programming related to the eclipse happening on 4/8/24. Your public library may be giving out eclipse glasses, like the New York Public Library (https://www.nypl.org/blog/2024/03/29/free-solar-eclipse-glasses-library), even if your community is not in the path of totality. Wondering what that phrase “path of totality” means? There is an organization I found called Starnet (https://www.starnetlibraries.org/about/our-projects/solar-eclipse-activities-libraries-seal/) that provides libraries and librarians with information and supplies to use with library communities to help educate and engage the public around science. I’ve also been reading Celeste Ng’s novel Our Mission Hearts which is a futurist, dystopian work with librarians as the central characters of the resistance movement against a fascist, nationalist regime – and the way that the librarians are linked and connect with their constituents is a novel way of reframing the power of ILL (Interlibrary Loan). These programs and even fictional depictions of how libraries bring people together around a common interest illustrates how libraries are drivers for civil society and democracy, as outlined in this post from the Urban Libraries Council: https://www.urbanlibraries.org/blog/the-library-democracy-and-you.  I have worked for over 25 years in public education, and I have held the belief of education as a cornerstone to democracy. But what happens after people finish or leave school? This is where libraries come in – a source of information and community for everyone at every life stage, especially true as more and more people in the US self-report no religious affiliation, or remain single or choose to be child-free — all the traditional ways society has convened or formed in social structures.