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Civic and Community Engagement Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Civic and Community Engagement

Spatial Politics And Literacy: An Analysis Of Little Free Libraries And Neighborhood Distribution Of Book-Sharing Depositories In Portland, Oregon And Detroit, Michigan, Desiree Wilson Jun 2020

Spatial Politics And Literacy: An Analysis Of Little Free Libraries And Neighborhood Distribution Of Book-Sharing Depositories In Portland, Oregon And Detroit, Michigan, Desiree Wilson

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The purpose of this research is to interrogate whether Free Little Libraries (LFL), the largest branded book-sharing movement in the world, continues to uphold its currently stated mission to provide book access to communities where book accessibility is low (determined by how many estimated books are in each household). Though the Little Free Library nonprofit has flourished in the decade since it was founded, indicating a fondness and appreciation for the Little Library as an idea and neighborhood ornament alike, critics of the organization have raised multiple concerns about whether the library boxes provide service to those who need them. …


Dead Newspapers And Citizens’ Civic Engagement, Lee Shaker Jan 2014

Dead Newspapers And Citizens’ Civic Engagement, Lee Shaker

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using data from the 2008 and 2009 Current Population Survey conducted by the United States Census, this article assesses the year-over-year change in the civic engagement of citizens in America’s largest metropolitan areas. Of special interest are Denver and Seattle, where the Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer closed during the intervening year. The data from the CPS indicate that civic engagement in Seattle and Denver dropped significantly from 2008 to 2009 – a decline that is not consistently replicated over the same time period in other major American cities that did not lose a newspaper. The analysis suggests that …