Western states’ open data project wins grant
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California State Library, along with Washington’s state technology agency and the Nevada State Library will receive a $470,000 award from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for their efforts to teach librarians and other community members how to use open data.
Called “Data Equity for Main Street,” the multistate project is a response to the Knight News Challenge’s call for ideas on how to make data work better for people and their communities. The project aims to teach citizens how to engage with open data provided by governments at all levels.
“Most libraries offer digital literacy training to community members. This project will support libraries as they help their communities access the open data, use it to affect change, and provide feedback to make it more useful for everyone. With this effort we hope to increase data equity, making open data open for everyone,” Anne Neville, director of the California Research Bureau at the California State Library, said in a press release.
The program will train librarians who, in turn, will train community members, using materials and plans provided by the project. The data access can yield information about community health outcomes, indicators about local school performance, crime rates and budgets.
The Data Equity for Main Street project was one grantee among 17. There were 1,000 applicants in the international competition.
Contact the reporter at kayla.nick-kearney@statescoop.com, and follow her on Twitter @NickKearneyK
