Civic Switchboard is an Institute of Museum and Library Services supported effort that aims to develop the capacity of academic and public libraries in civic data ecosystems.

Civic Switchboard is based on the idea that libraries and library workers should be key actors in civic open data ecosystems and act as core data intermediaries. That role can take many forms: developing community data literacies, making civic data more usable, strengthening relationships between data producers, providing expertise on privacy and data management, publishing and archiving civic data, hosting events… the specifics will be different in different regions, but at the core is the goal of helping people find, use, and apply public information.