Leveraging Use of Open Data by Public Library Staff for Community Benefit

The University of Washington Information School (Principal Investigator: Chris Jowaisas) requests a National Leadership Grant for Libraries to investigate ways in which public library staff can gain a better understanding of their local community using open data. By conducting interviews, surveys, and a workshop, we seek to uncover the current barriers among library staff to using open data for planning and decision-making. With a future goal of developing an open-source data platform, we will create a Plan of Work detailing use cases, technical requirements, and vetted open data.