Civic Switchboard Guide
  • Introduction
  • About
  • Context and Concepts
    • An incredibly condensed look at the development of open civic data in the United States
    • Ways of thinking about data: Open data, civic data
    • Defining a data intermediary
    • Where do libraries fit in?
    • Selected Resources
  • Engaging Partners
    • Building libraries into civic data partnerships
    • Finding partners in your ecosystem
    • Common barriers to getting started
    • Selected Resources
  • Understanding Your Ecosystem
    • Mapping your Ecosystem
    • Measuring Health and Capacity
    • Understanding Community Data Needs
    • Selected Resources
  • Library Roles
    • Connecting data users
    • Connecting data producers
    • Showing the importance of civic data
    • Developing civic data literacy
    • Advocating for ethical, responsible, and accessible civic data
    • Making civic data more usable
    • Providing expertise on data management
    • Creating civic data
    • Using civic data
    • Publishing civic data
    • Archiving civic data
    • Increasing the library's capacity to do all of the above
    • Selected Resources
  • Maintaining Momentum
    • Finding resources to support civic data work
    • Support networks and communities of practice
    • Institutionalizing
    • Selected Resources
  • Case Studies 2019
    • Alaska State Library, Juneau, AK
    • Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library, Charlotte, NC
    • Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, TX
    • Pioneer Library System, Ontario County, NY
    • Providence Public Library, Providence, RI
    • Queens Public Library, Queens, NY
    • Robert L. Bogomolny Library at the University of Baltimore, MD
    • Saint Paul Public Library, St. Paul, MN
    • Western New York Library Resources Council, Western NY
  • Case Studies 2020
    • The School of Library and Information Sciences Library at NCCU, Durham, NC
    • The University of Chicago Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship, Chicago, IL
    • Indianapolis Public Library, Indianapolis, IN
    • Spokane Public Library, Spokane, WA
    • St. Joseph County Public Library, South Bend, IN
  • Additional Resources
    • Civic Switchboard Workshop Materials
    • Open Data
    • Data Literacies
    • Partnerships and Community-Building
    • Library Roles in Civic Data Ecosystems
    • Archiving and Preservation of Civic and Government Data
    • Glossary
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  1. Library Roles

Increasing the library's capacity to do all of the above

What's the need?

  • To be sustainable, many of the roles in this section require ongoing commitments of people, resources, and expertise.

Why the library?

  • Libraries are relatively stable organizations and are used to long-term planning and infrastructural thinking.

What you can do:

  • Make the case about the importance of this work to your library's leadership and funders

  • Determine what a baseline of civic data awareness might look like for you and your library colleagues; then work on developing it through whatever means works best in your library (trainings, discussion groups, projects with community partners)

  • Modify existing staff positions to include responsibilities around civic data; support people in these roles with training and meaningful project work

  • Create and hire new positions with responsibilities around civic data

  • Cross pollinate civic data conferences

Inspiration:

  • Evansville, Indiana Area: Jerica Copeny | Movers & Shakers 2018 – Innovators

  • Pittsburgh, PA: Lyons, Kim. “3 Women You Should Know in Pittsburgh Civic Tech.” Technical.ly, May 9, 2018.

  • Pittsburgh, PA: Civic Switchboard. “Library Partners Reflect on NNIP Meeting,” June 6, 2018.

Resources you can use:

  • Talking Points: Why Libraries Should be Key Participants in their Civic Data Ecosystems [PDF, PNG]

  • Toolkit Job descriptions - coming soon

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Last updated 4 years ago