Editor’s Choice: This press release highlights the critical partnership between citizen science and libraries that needs to be further explored and exploited. It makes so much sense to link libraries with citizen science – after all, libraries serve as a community’s shared access point to a wealth of information that can provide the stepping stones for many a citizen scientist’s journey. –LFF–
Excerpt: Arizona State University (ASU) aims to position public libraries as key facilitators of citizen science, a collaborative process between scientists and the general public to spur the collection of data.
Through a new grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), researchers from the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and ASU Library will develop field-tested, replicable resource toolkits for public libraries to provide to everyday people contributing to real research, from right where they are.
ASU’s 2016 Citizen Science Maker Summit: (from left to right) Narendra Das, a research scientists at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Dan Stanton, associate librarian for academic services at ASU Library and co-investigator on the grant; Darlene Cavalier, professor of practice in ASU’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society and principal investigator on the grant; Catherine Hoffman, managing director of SciStarter; Micah Lande, assistant professor and Tooker Professor at The Polytechnic School; and Brianne Fisher, former ASU graduate student.
Source: Lewis, B., 2017. ASU Partners with public libraries to advance citizen science. Available at: https://asunow.asu.edu/20170913-asu-partners-public-libraries-advance-citizen-science, 13 September 2017 [Last accessed on 2 October 2017].