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