may08b.indd Cathy Carpenter Celebrating Constitution Day An opportunity to expand our role and increase our value to the campus and to the community Many librarians are not aware of recent legislation Public Law 108­447, Con­ solidated Appropriations Act 2005 that states, “Each educational institution that receives federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.” This applies to both public and private institutions that receive federal money. The idea of celebrating Constitution Day on September 17 has been around for a while, but it did not become a requirement until 2005.1 I believe Constitution Day presents the perfect opportunity for academic libraries to expand our civic role and increase our value to the campus and to the community. From personal experience, I have learned that ad­ ministrators and faculty are more than happy to have librarians become involved and as­ sume responsibility for planning the programs and events for Constitution Day. Fortunately, the federal legislation estab­ lishing Constitution Day is very nonspecifi c, a university or college can do just about anything to celebrate the day and meet the requirements of the law. The level of pro­ gramming can be as minimal as watching some videos from C­SPAN on Constitution topics to having a book display. The fl exibility of the law means that even small libraries or libraries with limited staff and resources can become involved. Constitution Day at Georgia Tech I became aware of Constitution Day at my university, Georgia Institute of Technology, two years ago when I read about it in the student newspaper. To celebrate Constitution Day, a few professors from the public policy and literature departments created a Consti­ tution Alley, which consisted of displaying eight large poster boards with an issue such as evolution, genetic engineering, or affi rma­ tive action written on each board. The boards were located on a popular student walkway. Students were encouraged to use sticky notes to write their thoughts on the issue and to read and respond to other students’ notes. I thought Constitution Alley seemed like a great way to get students thinking about current le­ gal and political issues and how they directly affect them. I wanted to get involved in plan­ ning Constitution Day on our campus. Enlisting faculty I knew the faculty member on the planning committee since one of my job responsibilities is to be the liaison to the public policy depart­ ment. I told him I would like to be involved in next year’s planning and the library would be the perfect venue to sponsor and organize the programs and events. He welcomed my involvement and we met last summer as a committee of two. We could not accomplish much with just the two of us, so we discussed what individuals we would ask to serve on our committee. He was very blatant about the difficulty of getting teaching faculty involved on campus and was pessimistic about fi nd­ Cathy Carpenter is head of Architecture Librar y at Georgia Institute of Technology, e-mail: cathy. carpenter@library.gatech.edu © 2008 Cathy Carpenter 266C&RL News May 2008 mailto:carpenter@library.gatech.edu ing others to help us. Obviously, he had not worked with librarians before! I assured him that not only could I enlist several competent librarians and library staff, but that they would be enthusiastic, as well. I asked two librarians who I knew were interested in civic and political issues and two library staff, one who had exhibit skills and the other who was responsible for event planning in the library’s newest information commons area. Our committee of six met regularly over the summer months. During our first few meetings we gathered ideas from looking at Web sites for Constitution Day resources such as the New York Times Constitution Day Plan­ ning Web site.2 of Constitution Day re­ We then had a brain­ sources we came across storming session where the Web site Annenberg we explored what was Classroom: Resources possible, considering for America’s Teachers the limitations of our re­ and decided to purchase sources and the amount two 20­minute videos of time each committee called “Key Constitu­ member could devote. tional Concepts” that we We narrowed our list of showed throughout the activities to what was week on the large screen viable but also ones that in the presentation/lec­ would use the expertise ture corner of our in­ of the committee mem­ formation commons.3 bers. The videos were our only expense. We had a Our topic budget from the univer­ We wanted to have an sity of several hundred educational lecture that dollars but were able to would be of interest do everything in­house, to students that would focus on a hot topic in the news. We chose the topic of unlawful government surveillance viewed from a historical perspective. The professor on our committee had a law degree and was knowledgeable about constitutional issues. He and another legal instructor in the public policy department each gave a lecture during the week. The first presentation was called “Privacy Please! Part I: A Constitutional History of Wiretapping” and the second was titled “Privacy Please! Part II: Who’s Listening Now?” Our exhibit expert suggested we create several informational panels highlighting vari­ ous constitutional issues. We settled on the following topics: the Fifth Amendment, the Eighteenth Amendment, privacy rights, and voting rights. Each panel was 24 x 36­inch poster size with text describing the constitu­ tional topic and how it is still relevant today. We had an attention grabbing photo at the top of each panel. The panels were displayed in our busy information commons area, very close to where the lectures would be taking place. We also had our library Webmaster add a Constitution Day Q & A page to our library Web site. During our search including developing the informational exhibit panels. In the past, I had organized campus voter registration drives with our student govern­ ment association and suggested I could do that again during the week of September 17. I only needed to get the registration forms and find a few library staff members to help me staff a voter registration table in the library entrance. The final step was to publicize the Consti­ tution Day events on campus. The fi rst week in September, I contacted Technique, the May 2008 267 C&RL News campus student newspaper, to do a feature article about the upcoming events. We de­ veloped promotional fl yers and placed them in the student center, the student recreation center, and the library reference and circula­ tion desks. Our library Webmaster placed a promo for the events on the library Web site and also on the campus calendar. We also ran off enough flyers to have the housing TA’s distribute them in the student dorms.4 We were pleased with the turnout for the Constitution Day events. The two lectures were well attended by both students and faculty, and there were plenty of ques­ tions afterwards from the audience. Several students commented on the informational panels during the week. I was able to register quite a few students and answered a lot of questions about registration in general and absentee voting. Outcomes The benefits of the library organizing Consti­ tution Day are readily apparent: it increases the libraries’ visibility on campus and with university administrators; provides opportu­ nities to collaborate with other departments, such as the political science department or the university law school as well as student groups (debate team or student govern­ ment association); promotes constitutional literacy and encourages student voter par­ ticipation. One of the best things about Constitution Day is the flexibility of the federal regula­ tion, a library could put as much effort into programming as its resources allow. Of course the library could do the same thing each year (which I would not recommend) or experiment with different events, exhibits, films, lectures, and debates depending on what constitutional topics are currently in the news. Since the Constitution is the basis of our legal system, the topics would always be relevant. One year privacy issues may be in the news, another year could be immigra­ tion laws or stem cell research. This being an election year, legal issues dealing with voting rights such as the proposed voter ID law or problems with voter fraud and electronic voting would be timely topics. Partnerships beyond the academy All librarians are familiar with information literacy initiatives that prepare students to be competent information seekers in the digital age. Another form of literacy is civic literacy, which strives to ensure students have the political knowledge and skills to participate as active citizens in our democracy. Consti­ tution Day programming can go a long way to fulfill the civic literacy imperative for our students. Traditionally, academic libraries have focused primarily on their campus con­ stituents of students and faculty, but many university libraries have been connecting for years with their local communities by serv­ ing as federal depositories of government information. Since this is an election year, all academic libraries have a unique oppor­ tunity to organize and promote civic literacy not only for students at their institutions, but also to move beyond the academy and build partnerships with influential organizations in their communities. Promoting civic education has long been one of the core missions of public libraries. Many public libraries have a long history of sponsoring community programs that edu­ cate citizens about local and national issues and facilitates dialogue. Nancy Kranich, past ALA president and a major proponent of encouraging academic libraries to become involved with civic literacy and engagement initiatives, has written extensively on the topic.5 Academic libraries could collaborate with public libraries to host an exhibit that explores democracy, freedom of speech, or civil rights that would be of interest to the campus and the community. Other potential partnerships could include collaborating with a local museum, historical center, or the state archive to share resources, such as historical documents or a news ar­ chive. Academic libraries could also partner with civic organizations, such as the local League of Women Voters, and sponsor panel 268C&RL News May 2008 discussions, debates, or lectures featuring lo­ cal and state political candidates discussing the relevant issues. For the last few years, both public and academic libraries have been participating in an initiative called the September Project ,which is a grassroots effort to foster civic events in all communities on the day of Sep­ tember 11.6 Libraries are encouraged to offer programs that explore themes of democracy, citizenship, and patriotism. Civic literacy pro­ grams don’t only have to be offered during the autumn months. In March, the National Freedom of Infor­ mation Day (sponsored by the First Amend­ ment Center in Nashville) and Sunshine Week (sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors) provide opportunities for academic libraries to partner with newspaper and media organizations to educate the public about the importance of open government and keeping information freely accessible.7 Thomas Jefferson said, “I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not en­ lightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.”8 Constitution Day offers librarians the per­ fect opportunity to educate and inform our users, form meaningful collaborations, and to extend our sphere of influence. Why not get involved this year? You have nothing to lose. Notes 1. Constitution Day announcement in Federal Register, www.ed.gov/legislation /FedRegister/other/2005­2/052405b.html (ac­ cessed January 3, 2008). 2. New York Times Constitution Day Plan­ ning Guide Web site, www.nytimes.com/ref /college/collegespecial2/coll­constitutionday. html (accessed January 3, 2008). 3. Annenberg Classroom: Resources for America’s Teachers Web site, www. annenbergclassroom.org/Chapter.aspx?Id=61 (accessed January 3, 2008). 4. Georgia Tech Constitution Day promo­ tional fl yer, www.library.gatech.edu/news /docs/constitution_fl yer.pdf. 5. Nancy Kranich, Michele Reid, and Tay­ lor Willingham, “Civic Engagement and Aca­ demic Libraries,” College and Research Li­ braries News, vol. 65, #4 (July/August, 2004): 380–83, 388, 393, www.ala.org/ala/acrl /acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2004/july04 /civicengagement.cfm (accessed January 3, 2008). 6. The September Project Web site, theseptemberproject.wordpress.com/ (ac­ cessed January 3, 2008). 7. National Freedom on Information Day Web site, www.fi rstamendmentcenter.org /press/information/topic.aspx?topic=FO I_Day (accessed January 3, 2008). Sunshine Week Web site, www.sunshineweek.org/ (accessed January 3, 2008). 8. Thomas Jefferson quote, found at www.wisdomquotes.com/003263.html (ac­ cessed January 3, 2008). May 2008 269 C&RL News www.wisdomquotes.com/003263.html http:www.sunshineweek.org http:rstamendmentcenter.org http:theseptemberproject.wordpress.com www.ala.org/ala/acrl www.library.gatech.edu/news www.nytimes.com/ref www.ed.gov/legislation