Selected Resources

On this page, we've selected and described some resources that we think are relevant to the "Library Roles" section.

Bertot, J. C., Butler, B. S., & Travis, D. M. (2014). Local Big Data: The Role of Libraries in Building Community Data Infrastructures. Proceedings of the 15th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, ACM. pp. 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1145/2612733.2612762

This paper considers essential infrastructure supporting a local information and data program and uses a case study approach to investigate roles for libraries in supporting the infrastructure and community data initiatives. Bertot, Butler, and Travis conduct 44 interviews in one mid-sized US city to understand data needs in community organizations and capacity within the library to engage in open data work.

Robinson, P., & Mather, L. W. (2017). Open Data Community Maturity: Libraries as Civic Infomediaries. Journal of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, volume 28, pp. 31-38. http://www.urisa.org/clientuploads/directory/Documents/Journal/Vol28_final.pdf

Robinson and Mather describe an alignment between the mission of a public library and local government’s efforts to open data. They make the case that public libraries are well-positioned to serve as “civic data informediaries,” or “a person or organization that connects community members with open data so that public value can be derived from the data” (p. 31). Robinson and Mather’s article highlights examples of public libraries acting as civic infomediaries, including the Edmonton Public Library and Chattanooga Public Library.

NNIP and Microsoft’s Civic Technology Engagement Group (2016). Data and Tech Training Catalog. https://www.neighborhoodindicators.org/data-tech/training

For libraries interested in offering data training, the NNIP and Microsoft's Civic Technology Engagement Group launched a catalog of existing training materials that organizations have developed. You'll find a range of training resources here, including introductions to data, data visualization, data analysis using Excel and R, and GIS and mapping materials.