Welcome to Season Ten of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you join us again! This is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff. It’s so good to have you here also. In this podcast, we talk about the skills library staff need to be successful and to help them to serve their communities.
This season we are talking about library programs – giving you some ideas about different ideas you can try in your own library. None of us is as good at this as all of us thinking together. It is always good to share ideas across libraries, and we are all better! Each week we will look at a different theme of programs.
This will be a fun week, because we are sharing some citizen science programs! At CMLE, we are such fans of bringing citizen science to libraries. We have done a series of blog articles about citizen science, with suggestions for bringing it into your library. (You can find our blog here!)
What is citizen science anyway? Basically, it is participation in science projects. Anyone can join in, and do some of the work that will help scientists to advance their work. There are a lot of places you can go to find projects that might be interesting to you, and projects that would be fun for your patrons.
One of our favorite sites is SciStarter. They have information on their site about working with libraries and making good connections there. “Libraries are rapidly becoming community hubs for citizen science, a global movement that enables people from all walks of life to participate in real scientific research. Libraries help connect people, activities, and resources to fully engage in citizen science topics they are curious and concerned about.”
From SciStarter: you can distribute citizen science kits to your patrons!
What is a citizen science kit? A citizen science kit holds everything needed to gather data for a specific citizen science project. Each kit was field-tested by librarians and patrons and includes a printed activity guide, helpful tips, and any specialized tools or materials needed to complete the project.
How are libraries involved? Libraries across the country are circulating citizen science kits, hosting events, and collaborating with their communities to enable participation in citizen science. The projects below were selected by librarians, patrons, and the SciStarter project team using criteria that includes topics, research goals, locations, tools needed, age level, and project sustainability.
How do I get started? Check out our Library Map to see if your local library is currently participating. If so, go to your local library, check out a kit, and get started on a project! If your library does not currently offer kits, you can still participate in the projects on this page or any of thousands of citizen science projects using the Project Finder on SciStarter. After you finish the project, don’t forget to complete the Kit Feedback Survey!
Topics covered:
- Exploring Biodiversity Document and identify plants and animals around you.
- Measuring Light in the Night Help gather light pollution data.
- Observing Pollinators Identify and count pollinators as they visit flowering plants.
- Mapping Mosquito Habitats Add your local observations to NASA satellite data!
- Monitoring Air Quality Capture measurements using an AirBeam sensor.
- Zombee Hunting Is the Zombie Fly attacking bees in your neighborhood?
Several libraries are circulating these materials to their patrons. You can admire their websites, to see what kinds of work they have to share, and go ahead and adapt them to your own library.
- Mesa Public Library “Citizen science is real science done by people like you! There are resources to match your interests with real scientific studies. Whether you share pictures from your garden to help track plant and animal species populations or take a walk in your own neighborhood with a personal air monitor, you can contribute!”
- The Maricopa PL also checks out these kits. “Citizen Science gives the average person the ability to help to contribute to real scientific studies. Whether you use your phone to share pictures to help track plant and animal species populations or take a walk in your own neighborhood with a personal air monitor, you can contribute to helping scientists! Learn more about Citizen Science from our partners at SciStarter!”
And, of course there are libraries doing all sorts of cool citizen science projects! Here are some of them. (Of course, all of these are linked in our show notes page, so you can admire them yourself, and maybe adopt some of the work for your own library.)
The Los Angeles PL has a pretty extensive set of resources on citizen science. “Neighborhood Science, more commonly known as Citizen Science or Crowd-Sourced Science, is ordinary people of any age gathering scientific information locally and sharing it with the global scientific community.”
The Brentwood PL in New York also has a variety of information and materials available. “Citizen science pairs scientists and researchers with the public to solve local and global issues and advance our greater scientific knowledge. Citizen science projects have focused on a range of issues, from tracking butterflies and birds, to Alzheimer’s research, to light pollution and weather and climate change. As citizen scientists, people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can contribute to real scientific research.” They also have a variety of programming.
Children’s Kits
- Birdfeeders – Create your own birdfeeders to hang up in your garden! Observe your feeder and use the iNaturalist app to share your findings. Ages 3-12
- Citizen Science Experiments – Included in this kit is everything you need to conduct the Ant Picnic and Pollen Nation experiments, along with swag for young citizen scientists. Ages 6-12
Teen Kits
- Teen Citizen Science – Included in this kit is everything you need to conduct the Ant Picnic and Pollen Nation experiments. Receive 3 hours of community service credit upon proof of completion.
Adult Kits
- Bat Box The materials needed for building your own Bat Box!
- Monarchs & Milk Weeds
- Native Bee Environment
- The Great Backyard Bug Hunt
The Solano County PL has kits to loan out and other materials “Millions of people enjoy science and nature, while thousands of scientists need volunteers. When regular citizens begin participating in data collection, analyzing, and testing, the general term for this is Citizen Science. Borrow Citizen Science Kits with your Solano County Library card here!”
The Portland PL has citizen science resources. “Doing science can be fun! You may think of research as teams of professional scientists at work but with the aid of the Internet, non-specialists can contribute, too. As “Citizen Scientists” we can share in scientific data collection and providing access to scientific information within our communities. PPL promotes citizen science through events, educational programs, and volunteer opportunities for you to explore science or technology on your own, increase personal understanding and appreciation, and contribute to the research underway.”
College libraries are involved in citizen science projects also.
NC State University Libraries “The NCSU Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program Leadership in Public Science cluster focuses on citizen science and science communication. They conduct research that directly engages the public, particularly those in underserved communities, in citizen science research. They also study the impact of public participation in science, particularly in informal educational settings.”
A few of their programs:
- Sentinels of the Sounds
- Sentinels of the Sounds seeks to collect photos, locations, and basic information about cypress trees along the shores of our Sounds and rivers in North Carolina. Our goal is to begin to connect the dots to better understand how our shores are changing. If you are out in the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound or some of the major rivers fishing, bird watching, or simply enjoying nature and you see these beautiful trees, snap a picture of them and send it to us.
- Sound Around Town
- Sound Around Town is a citizen scientist driven study of urban soundscapes and how individuals are impacted by them.
- Students Discover
- Students Discover offers free, high-quality curriculum to middle school science teachers around the world. These curriculum modules were created in partnership between scientists and educators to support student participation in a broad range of citizen science projects, ranging from measuring fossilized shark teeth to observing bird nests on school grounds.
- A Tree’s Life
- This program is a citizen science study of backyard tree growth in response to global climate change. Your trees can tell us a lot about forests of the future.
International libraries also get involved in citizen science work.
- University College London “Harnessing the advantages of the internet, openly available software packages and combining with local knowledge, embracing citizen science can bring about a change in the way research is conducted – one no longer limited to academic researchers, it encourages active collaboration from groups across society, making members of the public fellow researchers. Citizen science is a growing field and UCL is committed to widening participation in academic endeavours beyond the confines of the university and raising awareness of the concept of citizen science. We have collated a number of projects below to show the variety of ways to use a Citizen Science approach in your research.”
- Citizen Science education in Slovak research library: case study from Central Europe “Citizen science (CS) as the tool engaging people in scientific projects has a great potential for strengthening valuable relationships between academic community and public, democratization of science, building new specific competencies on both sides and supporting the values of civil society. Just now Slovakia, Central European country, is starting to discover its potential. Academic libraries have a unique position to promote CS. All over the world, many academic libraries take on the role of citizen science centers. The benefits include adding an attractive reason to visit the library, opportunities to gain new skills, networking library staff with scholarly community, increasing visibility and impact of library activities. Our CS skills training brings opportunity to encourage collaboration, create bridges among groups across society and make research libraries active centers of CS development in Slovakia.”
Books Read
Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that is everyone’s favorite: sharing books! We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!
- Wrapped up in Christmas: A Frost & Crowe Mystery, by Kristen Painter Princess Jayne Frost and Prince Consort Sinclair Crowe have been called back to Nocturne Falls for Christmas so that Jayne can help out at the short-staffed Santa’s Workshop. Being back means seeing some old friends, but also finding new trouble that Jayne just can’t stop thinking about. Are the random break-ins really someone trying to ruin Christmas? Because as Santa Claus’s niece, that feels personal to her. But when the real reason for the break-ins gets unwrapped, Jayne decides to do everything in her power to put an end to the problem. Too bad it might also mean the end of her.
- The Skeleton Stuffs a Stocking (The Family Skeleton Mysteries), by Leigh Perry Dr. Georgia Thackery is back home with her parents after finding a new adjunct position at Bostock College. Everyone is excited for Christmas with Sid, their walking, talking family skeleton. But their Christmas cheer is interrupted when the Thackerys’ dog Byron goes missing on a cold December night. When he’s finally found, he has a femur clutched between his jaws—and Georgia and Madison race to apologize to Sid for letting the dog gnaw on him yet again. Except that all of Sid’s bones are present and accounted for… This bone is from somebody else, and when they trace Byron’s trail to an overgrown lot nearby, they find the rest of the skeleton. It’s the normal kind, not moving or telling jokes, and when the police come to take charge, they’re sure it was murder, and one of Georgia’s adjunct friends could be implicated. With tensions stirring at the college and everyone hiding a secret or two, Sid and Georgia must uncover the truth before the ghost of a Christmas past strikes again.
- Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings: A Funny & Festive Christmas Cozy Mystery (A Mrs. Claus Mystery), by Liz Ireland Love is full of surprises—though few compare to realizing that you’re marrying the real-life Santa. April Claus dearly loves her new husband, Nick, but adjusting to life in the North Pole is not all sugarplums and candy canes. Especially when a cantankerous elf named Giblet Hollyberry is killed—felled by a black widow spider in his stocking—shortly after publicly arguing with Nick. Christmastown is hardly a hotbed of crime, aside from mishaps caused by too much eggnog, but April disagrees with Constable Crinkle’s verdict of accidental death. As April sets out to find the culprit, it’ll mean putting the future of Christmas on the line—and hoping her own name isn’t on a lethal naughty list . . .
Conclusion
This was a quick overview of a few ideas that you might want to use in your library. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to everything discussed today. We are looking forward to chatting with you all season! We will have more ideas to help you keep your library running well, and strategies to help you serve your community.
And if you want to hear more book suggestions, be sure you are also subscribed to our other podcast: Reading With Libraries. Short episodes drop every Tuesday, and we look at different aspects of Minnesota. This season we look at a different historic site across the state each week, and then suggest six books that reference the site.