Community-Library Inte-Action (CLIA) is a process where libraries play a meaningful role in supporting community capacity building for social transformation which engages THREE CORE ELEMENTS/VALUES:
- Democratic dialogue
- Social cohesion, inclusion, equality and diversity
- Informed civil and civic action.
As a process, CLIA is not only a method or a practice that can be implemented unidirectionally – it is uniquely participatory. It focuses on the kinds of relationships that are developed and held between libraries and communities, emphasizing that libraries are not only information service providers but community anchors and catalysts. CLIA promotes libraries working WITH communities, not just providing FOR communities. CLIA is not a one-time project, but a practice enabling librarians to hold space for communities, offer resources to sustain community dialogues, and support in their deliberate actions for social change.
Libraries are community anchors and catalysts, playing a key role in developing peaceful and sustainable communities. Across the world, local communities are experiencing civic unrest, conflict, disconnectedness, etc., which calls for communities to understand, reflect and act on commonly identified issues, and to develop community capacity building processes to advance community knowledge, intercultural understanding, empowerment and solutions. The Community-Library Inter-Action (CLIA) Project responds to this need by supporting libraries to facilitate local dialogue and community action. In this context libraries contribute to the collective action and impact on the part of libraries worldwide to advance peaceful and sustainable communities.