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Open Data Services & Literacies in Public Libraries

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Nic edited this page Jul 6, 2017 · 1 revision

Research Questions

Open data services (through survey)

  • What patron support do public libraries in the United States currently offer regarding the use of open data?

Support for Open Data Use (through case studies)

  • What difficulties do public libraries in the US face in supporting open data use in public libraries?
  • What contributes to the success of open data support provided by public libraries?
  • How can public libraries in the US better support public use of open data?

Literacies (through concept mapping):

  • How do web literacies support open data use? How can libraries best leverage MWL framework to support open data use by non-experts?

Relevant literature

Jaeger, P. T. (2009). Public libraries and local e-government. Handbook on Research on Strategies for Local E-Government Adoption and Implementation: Comparative Studies, 647–660.

Jaeger, P. T., & Bertot, J. C. (2009). E-government Education in Public Libraries: New Service Roles and Expanding Social Responsibilities. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 50(1), 39–49.

Taylor, N. G., Jaeger, P. T., Gorham, U., Bertot, J. C., Lincoln, R., & Larson, E. (2014). The circular continuum of agencies, public libraries, and users: A model of e-government in practice. Government Information Quarterly, 31, Supplement 1, S18–S25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.01.004

Scupola, A., & Zanfei, A. (2016). Governance and innovation in public sector services: The case of the digital library. Government Information Quarterly, 33(2), 237-249.

Sayogo, D. S., Wang, S., & Yuli, S. B. C. (2016, June). The Values of Public Library in Promoting an Open Government Environment. In Proceedings of the 17th International Digital Government Research Conference on Digital Government Research (pp. 481-490). ACM.

Grey literature

Hunt, B. (2016, September 28). The End of the Second Act of Civic Tech. Retrieved July 5, 2017, from https://medium.com/@krues8dr/the-end-of-the-second-act-of-civic-tech-2d8d9c766309

Revisiting Open Data Practices » Public Libraries Online. (n.d.). Retrieved July 5, 2017, from http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2014/05/revisiting-open-data-practices/

Schuman, D. (2015, June 19). A Rough Guide for Librarians on OpenGov. Retrieved July 5, 2017, from https://medium.com/@danielschuman/a-rough-guide-for-librarians-on-opengov-42108199a4e4#.ibo8ydmbn

Why Libraries Should Maintain the Open Data of Their Communities – Librarian of Things. (n.d.). Retrieved July 5, 2017, from https://librarian.aedileworks.com/2016/11/11/why-libraries-should-maintain-the-open-data-of-their-communities/

Library + Open Data Projects

Projects | Library Innovation Lab (Harvard): http://lil.law.harvard.edu/projects/

Open Data to Open Knowledge (Boston Public Library): https://knightfoundation.org/grants/201550349/

Chattanooga Open Data Portal: https://data.chattlibrary.org/

Free Government Information: http://freegovinfo.info/node/10

Conceptual steps (very rough sketch of logic)

  1. Open data scholarship often focuses on accessibility, quality, or role of public records release... '
  2. Far less work done on use of open data by citizens
  3. Even less about support offered, and needed to use open data
  4. This may be for good reason... maybe data isn't meant for general public
  5. But it should, its part of broader set of digital / web literacies required to be an engaged member of civil society (e.g. 21st century skills: https://learning.mozilla.org/en-US/web-literacy/skills/)
  6. Traditionally these kinds of roles - support, outreach, and education with emerging technologies - have been the domain of libraries.
  7. A parallel can be observed in academic libraries, many of which are responding to open data mandates by developing services to both help manage existing data, and educate producers of new data on best practices

Goal of this work is as follows:

  1. Understand how (or, if) public libraries in NA are supporting civic engagement with open data
  2. Explore successful models for common themes, best practices, and needed skills gaps.
  3. Map needed skills to related models of 21st librarian skills + Web literacy framework from Mozilla

Practically we can realize these goals through:

  1. Hosting event in collaboration with SPL training librarians and general public on Open Data Literacy 101 type information. Following these events will be open working sessions with out team to identify types of projects meaningful, useful, applicable to community members in attendance. (working notes here: https://github.com/OpenDataLiteracy/SPL-2017/wiki/ODL-Workshop-Event-Planning)

As well as developing better understanding of how public libraries are supporting open data initiatives:

  1. Survey of public libraries in NA around open data support (electronic) - [ need to develop questionnaire ]

  2. Case study development (interview / document analysis) of identified public libraries that are already doing this type of work - [ need to develop questionnaire / instrument ]

Sampling strategy for survey

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