Deepen community connections with new bridgebuilding resources
Public libraries provide spaces where people can connect, learn, and build a shared future. They also play a crucial role in fostering social trust and civic engagement. IREX and the Urban Libraries Council have been partnering with OCLC’s WebJunction for several years on bridgebuilding initiatives. We define bridgebuilding as creating opportunities for community members to engage across differences in ways that respect identities, foster mutual relationships, seek a common good, and promote a commitment to civic engagement.
Currently, the Bridgebuilding Community of Practice gathers online monthly to learn together about how to scale trust-building efforts, integrate best practices, and measure impact. Join the bridgebuilding community of practice to attend the session on 21 October, where you'll learn simple ways to strengthen the trust-building impact of your programming and services. Previous monthly sessions have been recorded in the Community of Practice, and we will continue to meet and share ideas and discussions through May 2026.
Explore new resources
The Bridgebuilding Hub is a collection of bridgebuilding resources for your library, including facilitation guides, training videos, and tools for measuring the effectiveness of activities. One of the Community of Practice members described the Hub as,
“AMAZING—it's like everything I've bookmarked or squirreled away in my ‘Keep Thinking About This!’ folder for YEARS.”
The updated Hub has something for everyone, from those who are just curious to those deeply invested in bridgebuilding efforts, including:
- Five tips for healthy conversations in divided times—a helpful list of practical ideas to listen well, disagree well, and take care of yourself in the process.
- The Civic Language Perceptions Project—offers new findings that may be helpful in considering how we use language to frame or advertise an event to promote bridgebuilding efforts most effectively.
- Weave: The Social Fabric Project— tackles the problem of broken trust and isolation in the US. Their interactive map allows you to search by zip code to see how a community has scored on various measures of social trust. The data allows a community to lean into its strengths and build on its weaknesses while being inspired by communities all over the map that are working to build the social fabric of communities.
- The Belonging Barometer report —helps libraries to make the case for the importance of belonging for leaders and stakeholders across diverse sectors. Bridgebuilding efforts can increase belonging, and this report and its tools help develop a more nuanced
- Denver Public Library’s Mementos from Home project—includes an easy activity that could be incorporated in any event to add an element of bridgebuilding. Using an artifact from home, whether it’s a ring, a coin, or simply a memory, patrons can share stories about the objects that mean the most to them.
Stay up to date
Sign up for Crossroads, our monthly newsletter, to be sure to learn about our January 2026 webinar featuring learnings from our Community of Practice.
