Breakout: Inclusive Data and Community Engagement: New Roles for Libraries to Shape Knowledge Creation and Use
Starts @ 12:15 pm PT | 1:15 pm MT | 2:15 pm CT | 3:15 pm ET
With the growing importance placed on data to drive policy, programs, and decision-making, the voices of community members the data is intended to represent become even more vital. There continue to be many groups marginalized and/or underrepresented in data, or whose voices and realities are lost in statistics. This significantly limits the ability for effective and inclusive policy design. Building upon the work public libraries have done in building community reading and digital literacy, there is a tremendous opportunity for libraries to increase the capacity of their communities to participate in the creation and use of data to better inform policy making and engage in civic action and dialogue. In this session, participants will take an in-depth look at the need for inclusive data and the role libraries could play in supporting it. Participants will learn tools for assessing marginalized voices in data, share insights from their experiences working with their communities, and begin creating plans to engage their communities to address social problems through getting better and more inclusive data.