Schools, colleges and universities, and local communities now recognize the key role they play to encourage citizen participation and promote civic engagement. New civic engagement initiatives underway offer perfect opportunities for libraries to fulfill their traditional roles of promoting civic literacy and ensuring an informed citizenry. Today, libraries undertake a vast array of innovative programs that bring citizens together to share common concerns. These programs are most successful when libraries forge civic partnerships to extend their reach and work with other organizations and individuals to strengthen participation in democracy. (Contains 41 notes.)