Viewpoint Diversity Toolkit

Resources for bridging division

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There are a growing number of organizations and resources dedicated to protecting free speech, encouraging intellectual freedom, promoting viewpoint diversity, and ameliorating political polarization. The following list of resources comprise a viewpoint diversity toolkit that librarians can use for personal edification, professional development, public programming, and information literacy instruction.

Organizations Promoting Viewpoint Diversity

Academic Freedom Alliance The Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) is a non-profit organization whose members are dedicated to protecting the rights of faculty members at colleges and universities to speak, instruct, and publish without fear of sanction or punishment.

American Library Association The American Library Association adopted the “Library Bill of Rights” in 1939 and  “The Freedom to Read” statement in 1953.

ALA Office for Intellection Freedom Established December 1, 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.

American Booksellers for Free Expression Founded by the American Booksellers Association in 1990, ABFFE’s mission is to promote and protect the free exchange of ideas, particularly those contained in books, by opposing restrictions on the freedom of speech; issuing statements on significant free expression controversies; participating in legal cases involving First Amendment rights; collaborating with other groups with an interest in free speech; and providing education about the importance of free expression to booksellers, other members of the book industry, politicians, the press and the public.

Bipartisan Policy Center/ Campus Free Expression Project BPC’s Campus Free Expression Project, which believes a free and open society depends upon the free and open exchange of ideas, promotes campus policies and programs that foster a safe and welcoming environment for robust intellectual exchange.

Braver Angels Citizens' organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America.

Civic Health Project Invests in research and practical interventions that promote healthier discourse, collaboration, and problem-solving across partisan divides.

Counterweight A non-partisan, grassroots movement advocating for liberal concepts of social justice including individualism, universalism, viewpoint diversity and the free exchange of ideas.

Essential Partners Essential Partner’s trademark methodology helps communities and institutions have healthier, more complex, more inclusive conversations about polarizing differences of values, beliefs, and identities.

FAIR The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.  

FIRE The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s mission is to defend and sustain the individual rights of students and faculty members at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, freedom of association, due process, legal equality, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience.

Free Speech Champions The Free Speech Champions project is a new initiative to encourage free speech, particularly among the younger generation.

Living Room Conversations Living Room Conversations connect participants across divides of politics, age, gender, race, nationality, and more.

National Coalition Against Censorship The National Coalition Against Censorship promotes freedom of thought and inquiry, opposes censorship, and encourages and facilitates dialogue between divergent voices and perspectives, including those that have historically been silenced.

OpenMind   OpenMind is a non-profit organization that builds scalable, evidence-based tools to equip people with the habits of heart and mind to engage in more constructive and empathetic dialogue across differing backgrounds, beliefs, and values.

PEN America PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.

Resetting the Table Resetting the Table collaborates with strategic partners to build important communication across political silos in American life.

Scholars at Risk Scholars at Risk protects scholars suffering grave threats to their lives, liberty and well-being by arranging temporary research and teaching positions at institutions in our network as well as by providing advisory and referral services.

Resources for Patrons

AllSides AllSides exposes people to information and ideas from all sides of the political spectrum with balanced news coverage, media bias ratings, and civil dialogue opportunities that can be integrated by schools, nonprofits, media companies, and more.

Ground News Ground News allows users to compare how media outlets with different political ideologies are covering stories.

The Narratives Project  The Narratives Project studies the evolution and divergence of political narratives to help readers better understand the stories emerging around them.

Further Reading/ Listening/ Viewing

Booksmart Studios Booksmart Studios offers four podcasts — Bully Pulpit, Banished, Lexicon Valley and Unprecedented — that question conventional wisdom.

Garnar, Martin, ed., and Trina Magi, asst. ed. Intellectual Freedom Manual. 10th ed. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2021.

Intelligence Squared US  Founded in 2006 as an antidote to worsening political polarization, IQ2 hews to the traditional Oxford-style debate format. IQ2 describes its mission thusly: “Provide a forum for balanced and intelligent debate that is widely distributed as a radio program, podcast, online broadcast, television, and digital video series; promote intellectual and viewpoint diversity by fostering respect for contrary opinions; curate thought-provoking conversations around the most important issues of the day.” Civility is the organization’s watchword.

Kettering Foundation, Public Deliberation in Democracy Brief outline of how deliberative processes strengthen democracy in communities.

The New Liberals  “Liberal conversations for illiberal times,” featuring guests on issues of identity, democracy, policy, and belonging.  

Pairagraph  Pairagraph is a  platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals in order “to revive this dualistic and dialectic mode of discourse, which has fallen lately into a state of decay.” Inspired by the years-long correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Persuasion  Persuasion is a publication and community based on three basic convictions-- building a free society in which all individuals get to pursue a meaningful life irrespective of who they are, believing in the importance of the social practice of persuasion, and defending free speech and free inquiry against all its enemies.  

Stanford University, Center for Deliberative Democracy  Research about democracy and public opinion with emphasis on deliberative democracy.