Main Page/Common Ground

Common Ground for Intellectual Freedom

Intro

We're so excited to welcome you to Common Ground for Intellectual Freedom, a two-day in-person convening for librarians and our allies working to defend intellectual freedom. This event is co-hosted by Urban Librarians Unite, Library Futures, Library Freedom Project, and EveryLibrary Institute, and sponsored by the Mellon Foundation.

Common Ground will be held October 20 to 22, 2025 near Little Rock, Arkansas

Common Ground will be a two-day convening of approximately 50-70 library workers and fellow travelers from the policy and advocacy space.

Our agenda will focus on peer-to-peer learning and skill-sharing, intending to build our collective power and resilience, and drawing upon the shared expertise of our communities.

This convening will enable front-line staff and advocates to create immediate, practical tools and connections to bring back to our home communities and advocacy spaces. A secondary goal is to bring new, aligned voices in civil rights, community organizing, and on-the-ground policy and advocacy into ongoing coalition work around intellectual freedom to create new connections and communities of practice.

Please read and abide by our community documents

Community Agreements

• Consider your boundaries
• Respect the boundaries of others
• Take Breaks
• Did everyone get to contribute?
• Ponder before you share
• Access needs

Agenda

How we are organizing this agenda

We have two categories of breakout sessions on our agenda: Structured Sessions, and Collaborative Conversations.

Collaborative Conversations are meant to be more of an open discussion, with no expectation that facilitators need to prepare notes, slides, or other materials in advance (however, if you wish to do so, it would be welcome and we can discuss). Participants in these conversations will be asked to bring their own ideas. Facilitators are expected to designate someone to take stack (“stack” is the list names of those waiting to speak), a notetaker, and a timekeeper, help uphold our community agreements (which we will discuss at length in the convening introduction) and generally help the conversation flow.

Structured Sessions are where facilitators will prepare and then deliver to the group a 20-30 minute presentation, followed by a group discussion. Some of these sessions will have pre-readings, which we will share prior to the event. Facilitators are also expected to designate someone to take stack (“stack” is the list names of those waiting to speak), a notetaker, and a timekeeper, help uphold our community agreements (which we will discuss at length in the convening introduction) and generally help the conversation flow.

On day two, we will break into affinity groups organized around subjects that participants wish to continue collaborating on after the convening.

Info sessions

Prior to the in-person convening, we will be hosting three optional virtual information sessions for Common Ground participants. Here are the dates for the information sessions:

• Info Session 1: September 23rd, 12 pm Pacific/1 pm Mountain/2 pm Central/3 pm Eastern
• Info Session 2: October 1st, 9 am Pacific/10 am Mountain/11 am Central/12 pm Eastern
• Info Session 3: October 7th, 2 pm Pacific/3 pm Mountain/4 pm Central/5 pm Eastern

Please get in touch with conference conveners for the Zoom link.

Venue and accommodations

Our meeting venue and accommodations are at The Vines Center.

Wifi is "4-H Guest" with no password.

Room check-in at the Vines Center begins at 3 p.m. CDT on Monday. All rooms are single occupancy with a private bath (unless we talked about another arrangement). We will have a common area to hang out and network beginning at on Monday. If you are arriving very early on Monday and cannot wait at the Airport for the first van at 12:15pm, please text John Chrastka at 708-819-0352 this weekend.

Accessibility info

• Reach out to Leah ([email protected]) with any accessibility or dietary issues.

Food

We will be providing all meals from dinner on Monday evening to lunch on Wednesday afternoon.

Airport vans

• Monday, October 20th, we will have two 12-passenger vans to transport you from the Little Rock Airport to the Vines Center.
• The first van will leave at 12:15 p.m. CDT and then on the 15s every hour until the last van leaves at 6:15 p.m.
• The vans will be parked outside the baggage claim exit doors. Please look for "Village Travel" vans (you can see their logo on their website https://www.govillagetravel.com/).
• The ride to the Vines Center is approximately 35 minutes.
• If your flight is delayed past 6:15pm CDT, please call or text John Chrastka as soon as possible to arrange transportation. You will not be left on your own.
• Wednesday airport vans depart the Vines Center at 12:15 pm CDT and 2:15 pm CDT.

Covid protocols

• Please rapid test before you come and wear a mask if you feel sick.

What to bring

• Casual, comfortable clothing and shoes
• Business cards
• Refillable water bottle
• Notetaking equipment of your preference
• Bug spray

In case of emergency or travel issues

• In case of travel delays, contact organizers at 718.513.9564