Data Zines: A Hands-On Approach to Community Curiosities
Title: Data Zines: A Hands-On Approach to Community Curiosities
Presenter: Tess Wilson, Network of the National Library of Medicine – Middle Atlantic Region
Description: In 2017, Tess Wilson partnered with the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WRPDC) to present a week-long workshop for teens at their local public library. Engaging teens in civic change and community involvement through open data was a priority throughout the week. With the help of reporters and library staff, teens explored local data repositories and open data portals to find topics relevant to their interests and larger community needs. The result of the workshop was a set of teen-produced zines that examined their city through a civic data lens. This workshop is low-cost and highly replicable for a wide variety of age ranges, community types, and topics of interest. Overall, this proved to be an exciting and innovative way to engage intimately with community data!