The Library & Community Guide to Citizen Science
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UPDATED 2021FOR The Library & Community Guide to Citizen Science Understanding, planning and sustaining ongoing engagement in citizen science at your library or community-based organization December 2020 EDITORS: Darlene Cavalier Arizona State University, SciStarter Caroline Nickerson SciStarter Robin Salthouse SciStarter Dan Stanton Arizona State University Library, SciStarter December 2020 ADVISORS: Kirsten Crowhurst Program Manager, NNLM All of Us Training and Education Center Lydia N. Collins Participant Engagement Lead, NNLM All of Us Training and Education Center Kelli Ham Formerly at the of Libraries of Medicine Pacific Southwest Region Theresa Schwerin The Library and Community Guide to Citizen Science was made possible with support from: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) The Institute of Museum and Library Services, under grant numbers LG-95-17-0158-17 and DESIGNER: LG-246428-OLS-20. IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. IMLS advances, supports and empowers America’s museums, libraries and Emily Maletz related organizations through grantmaking, research and policy development. Their vision is SPECIAL THANKS TO: a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and Cynthia Randall communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov. This project has been funded in whole or Cornerstones of Science in part by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Yang Cao cooperative agreement number 5UG4LM012342-05 with the University of Pittsburgh, Health SciStarter Sciences Library System. This is a modified version of the Library and Community Guide Deron Ash originally published in February of 2019. Arizona State University Kristi Eustice Arizona State University EDITORIAL SUPPORT: Renee Wilkinson Michele Elder Libraries are quickly becoming We hope this guide will help you: • Learn more about citizen science and hubs for citizen science. Your connections with libraries and community- library may already be involved in based organizations. • Discover STEM-related issues of interest citizen science programming. or concern to your communities. If so, bravo! For countless others, • Connect existing programs and citizen science is still a bit of a communities to projects on SciStarter.org. • Access resources to help broaden mystery. We created this guide awareness and increase diverse to help you navigate the rapidly engagement with citizen science projects. • Connect with projects, instruments, changing landscape, access subject matter experts and diverse resources, learn about projects communities to activate and sustain engagement in citizen science. and programs and explore a • Plan Citizen Science Month events in April myriad of opportunities to support and other in-person, virtual and hybrid events throughout the year. your plans to bring citizen science • Support facilitators (community leaders, to your library or community- educators, volunteers, staff, etc.) in introducing citizen science through based organization (CBO). your library. Quick-Start Guide . 5 CONTENTS Get started with citizen science SECTION 1: Citizen Science Overview . 6 Learn about citizen science and how it can help your community SECTION 2: Using SciStarter . 9 Connect to projects, instruments, subject matter experts and more SECTION 3: Connecting Your Community to Citizen Science . 13 Discover interest areas within your community, access resources and develop partnerships Check it out! Citizen Science Kit Program ............................................16 This guide can be downloaded from SciStarter.org/Library-Resources Partnership Highlights .............................................................19 Opportunities for the Academic Library. .23 SECTION 4: Celebrate Citizen Science Month . 25 Plan your citizen science event, promote featured projects and learn about facilitator resources Step-By-Step Guide for Hosting a Citizen Science Month Event. .28 Planning a Virtual Event ............................................................30 Event Promotion Timelines .........................................................34 Results from Citizen Science Month 2020 ...........................................39 SECTION 5: Beyond Citizen Science Month . 42 Ideas for sustained engagement and awareness growth throughout the year SECTION 6: Additional Citizen Science Resources . 46 Websites, articles and book recommendations ADDENDUMS We’ll update this guide periodically. Email [email protected] to share your citizen science Addendum A: Programming Checklist Template ......................................48 resources or suggest edits to this guide. Addendum B: Email Outreach Examples .............................................50 Addendum C: Survey Template. .53 Some URLs in this guide are case-sensitive. Addendum D: Sample Social Media Toolkit ...........................................55 QUICK-START GUIDE TUTORIAL: Get started with citizen science Introduction to Citizen Science CITIZEN SCIENCE IS: This interactive, self-guided, online tutorial • A way for anyone, anywhere to engage introduces the who, what, how and why in science, from monitoring water quality, of citizen science. Allow approximately 30 tracking wildlife and insect species, minutes to complete the tutorial and engage in one project. Offered in analyzing and classifying images of galaxies English and Spanish at SciStarter.org/Library-Resources . and so much more. • A growing trend for fun, scientific engagement that libraries and community LEARN MORE organizations won’t want to miss. Watch videos, including “What is Citizen Science?” and a series of “How Tos”: • Accessible to people regardless of SciStarter.org/Citizen-Science-Videos background, interests, skills or location. Explore citizen science programming and kit resources for libraries: • A perfect addition to existing library SciStarter.org/Library-Resources programs, community-based organization Sample citizen science project kits designed for use by libraries and other community activities, event calendars, inclusive options organizations:SciStarter.org/Library-Kits for seniors/adults/teens/families and more. Embed the Project Finder on your organization’s website to help people discover and join • Free and easily accessible through projects: SciStarter.org/Widget SciStarter.org, featuring thousands of searchable projects. Share citizen science projects and resources for educators and learners: SciStarter.org/Education • An opportunity for collaborations between libraries and community organizations Engage with citizen science resources and find best practices for academic libraries and higher to leverage resources and increase education: libguides.asu.edu/citizenscience engagement in authentic scientific research. Join the growing network of citizen science libraries and community-based organizations (CBOs) • And a way to help people address local by signing up for our mailing list: CitizenScienceMonth.org/MailingList concerns that can inform decision-making Discover Citizen Science Month resources and add an event:CitizenScienceMonth.org and improve related policies. Read citizen science articles:blog.SciStarter.org Stay current on the field of citizen science: CitizenScience.org The Library & Community Guide to Citizen Science 5 Quick-Start Guide SECTION 1: WHAT’S IN A NAME? CITIZEN SCIENCE OVERVIEW Citizen science is the most widely used term to describe this process Learn about citizen science and how it can help your community of public involvement with scientific research. Here’s how the National Science is our most reliable system of gaining new knowledge and Academies explains the global use of the term: “The committee uses citizen science is the public involvement in the inquiry and discovery of the term citizen science because that is the term most commonly used new scientific knowledge. A citizen science project can involve between within the scientific and science education communities to describe one person and millions of people collaborating toward a common goal. these activities. We recognize that the term ‘citizen,’ particularly in Typically, public involvement centers around data collection, analysis the United States, connects to a contentious immigration debate or reporting. about who is eligible to participate in civic life, including science and education. While other terms can be used to describe citizen science, Bruce Lewenstein of Cornell University’s Communication and S&TS such as community science, public participation in scientific research, departments describes three possible definitions: participatory action research and community-based participatory • The participation of nonscientists in the process of gathering data research, none of them is as complete or widely used as citizen science. according to specific scientific protocols and in the process of using The committee uses citizen science despite its associated tensions.” and interpreting that data. bit.ly/NationalAcademiesCitizenScience • The engagement of nonscientists in true decision-making about Bottom line: We are citizens of the world and citizen science is serious policy issues that have technical or scientific components. science. If it were up to us, we’d just call this “science”! • The engagement of research scientists in the democratic and policy process. WHO CAN BE A CITIZEN SCIENTIST? A citizen scientist can be anyone who voluntarily and actively engages in scientific research,