Citizen Science Month 2021

The Network of the National Library of Medicine NNLM intends to continue expanding opportunities for in-person and virtual engagement efforts in support of the awareness and retention goals of the NIHs Research Program. Citizen science is an area of focus for engagement and retention activities and aligns with the NNLM and priority health and wellness topics. To this end, SciStarter and Arizona State University propose to expand and improve upon the successful collaboration with NNLM and to provide a series of hybrid in-person/virtual engagement opportunities and resources to support community-engaged citizen science activities in and through libraries leading up to and during Citizen Science Month April 2021. This proposal builds upon our work from Citizen Science Day in 2019 and Citizen Science Month in April of 2020 in collaboration with the NNLM Training and Education Center TEC and implements best practices both for facilitator and scientist coordination and community engagement learned from transitioning in-person to virtual events during the onset of COVID-19.