Adults cannot be induced to go "back" to school but they can be assisted in continuing their education. The school, the university, forums, discussion groups, libraries, newspapers, magazines, the radio, and the motion pictures all have roles to play in making education a continuing process for adults. The public forum demonstrations, sponsored by the Office of Education, have emphasized the importance of the cooperation of many agencies in achieving community-wide adult civic education. This study is concerned with forums and discussion groups of all sizes and of various sponsorships, but is limited to those which deal with public affairs. There has been little attempt to explore the activities of groups discussing philosophy, literature, the arts, etc. It is hoped that this publication may stimulate and assist librarians and leaders of discussion to find more and better ways of making the printed page see to the needs of the forums. If reading is to play the effective part it seems capable of playing in making public forums a really vital force in civic education, an attack on the problem in three directions seems indicated after an examination of the successes and failures of various forums in trying to promote reading. First, there must be a definite program of publicity and education to demonstrate to forum attendants the values of reading in connection with discussion of public questions. Secondly, reading materials must be made more accessible than they now are. Lastly, a much more suitable type of reading material must be provided. A list of selected references is provided. (Contains 16 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]