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
    • Guidelines for Creating Open Educational Resources
    • Archiving and Preservation of Civic and Government Data
    • Glossary
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  1. Library Roles

Publishing civic data

PreviousUsing civic dataNextArchiving civic data

Last updated 5 years ago

What's the need?

  • Many municipalities and regions have open data to share but need an institution to manage or coordinate a centralized data collection.

Why the library?

  • Libraries are trusted stewards of information and library workers have considerable expertise in managing data and protecting privacy.

  • Libraries are leading many digital inclusion and data literacy efforts in their communities.

  • As the priorities of elected officials change, having a third-party entity like a library host data from government organizations and other partners can also help to sustain community data initiatives.

What you can do:

  • Publish available non-sensitive public information (ex. Census data) about your community

  • Build a prototype program using cloud-based data storage services like Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive to host data

  • Manage a civic data portal

Inspiration:

  • Chattanooga, TN: hosted by the public library

  • Albuquerque, NM: using existing server infrastructure and simple protocols like FTP

Resources you can use:

  • Civic Switchboard Project. (2019). .

  • Linda Poon. (2019) “” CityLab.

  • Sullivan, K. (2018). Medium post.

Open Data portal
Open Data infrastructure
8 Considerations for Libraries That Want to Host Open Data
Should Libraries Be the Keepers of Their Cities’ Public Data?
Can Libraries Accelerate Local Open Data Publishing?