# Publishing civic data

**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: [Open Data portal](https://data.chattlibrary.org/) hosted by the public library
* Albuquerque, NM: [Open Data infrastructure](https://www.cabq.gov/abq-data) using existing server infrastructure and simple protocols like FTP 

**Resources you can use:**

* Civic Switchboard Project. (2019). [8 Considerations for Libraries That Want to Host Open Data](https://civic-switchboard.github.io/post_14/) .
* Linda Poon. (2019) “[Should Libraries Be the Keepers of Their Cities’ Public Data?](https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/02/libraries-public-information-city-data-digital-archive/581905/)” CityLab.
* Sullivan, K. (2018). [Can Libraries Accelerate Local Open Data Publishing?](https://medium.com/open-data-literacy/can-libraries-accelerate-local-open-data-publishing-34caaf6a767f) Medium post.