This week, the Toronto Public Library is launching its biggest series ever, “On Civil Society,” in an effort to get people out of their social-media echo chambers.

The series will consist of thousands of free events running until fall 2019, from “flagship” speakers at the Toronto Reference Library to workshops on media literacy and how to run for public office, said Gregory McCormick, manager of cultural and special event programming.

“Particularly on social media, we’ve kind of forgotten how to disagree with each other,” McCormick said. “And we live in this world where our impulse is just to dismiss someone who has a different point of view or a different world view than our own.”

While there’s plenty of insults and name-calling in our increasingly polarized societies, “what seems to me that we do less and less of is listen,” wrote City Librarian Vickery Bowles in a recent blog post on the series.

Read more:

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“Libraries are, in many ways, the last public spaces where disagreement is accepted and even encouraged. But even this will be lost if we don’t remember that we have to learn how to listen to each other.”

A few events are already planned, including a series on the Special Investigations Unit, which investigates cases of death or serious injury that involve police.

The series will also feature podcasts and videos, so that it reaches a wider audience beyond Toronto, as well as an upcoming “human library” with experts who will explain how to expand your personal bubble by following different people on social media or reading books with different viewpoints, McCormick said.

The Toronto Public Library’s board recently banned hate groups from renting out space, following a memorial service at Etobicoke’s Richview branch for a lawyer who had represented neo-Nazis and white nationalists last summer.

But McCormick said the series will respect the balance between keeping the library a “safe and welcoming space” and not allowing “extreme views.”

“We also want people to be aware that we all live in bubbles, and how do we expand our bubbles in a way that makes us smarter and more aware of things, without opening us up to hate speech,” he said.

If you go:

A few events to check out:

The Science Behind SIU Investigations

Tuesday March 6, 2018

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7 - 8 p.m.

Fort York Branch

Is the expert dead?

Friday, April 13, 2018

7 - 8 p.m.

Toronto Reference Library

Bram & Bluma Appel Salon

Gentrification and Parkdale with Interactive Virtual Reality Walk

Saturday May 5, 2018

12 - 1 p.m.

Parkdale Branch

Program Room