Welcome to the Community Information Toolkit

The Community Information Toolkit provides information, training materials, and demonstration software to assist in the creation of a new community information network. The Library of Michigan provides this Toolkit on behalf of public libraries in Michigan, and any institutions anywhere that embark on a community information networking project. (Note: clicking on links on this page will cause your Web browser to open the content in a new window.)

The Toolkit consists of these components:

• Book: A 250 page book entitled Building a Community Information Network: A Guidebook.
• Videos: A set of 4 video programs suitable for use in training your community information network team.
• Training Materials: A series of Powerpoint presentations that you can use as-is or with your own local modifications
• Software: A pair of demonstration applications: a community calendar and a community forum.

See the Overview for more information about each of these components as well as how to make best use of each.

About the Project

This is an archival web site. This toolkit was produced in 1999.

The Community Information Toolkit provides Michigan public libraries, and their communities, an array of assistance in developing local, community information for publication on the World Wide Web. Information in the Toolkit includes:

• A basic overview of community information networks, and a review of successful community information projects
• Sample vision/mission statements taken from real projects
• Examples and strategies for forming local partnerships and for fund raising
• Training modules for identifying content, soliciting content, organizing content, integrating content, converting content into digital form, publishing & maintaining content and archiving Web sites
• Local site hardware and software recommendations
• A bibliography
• Complete step-by-step instructions on installing Windows NT and Microsoft Internet Information Server as a Web server environment
• Demonstration software: a community calendar and a community discussion forum, with complete step-by-step instructions.

A defined set of Michigan library agencies received the Community Information Toolkit as part of the initial distribution.

Web Address and E-mail Address

This site was originally hosted at, www.mel.org. The Toolkit was also provided in CD-ROM format to the agencies mentioned above.

This site is an archive site for the Toolkit. If you have questions or comments, see the original authors.

Toolkit Demonstration Sites

Two demonstration sites were selected to test the concepts behind the Toolkit:

• Rochester Hills Public Library created Greater Rochester History Online (GHRO) focusing on cultural, historical and governmental information of the community. Community partners are Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm and the Special Collections Department of Oakland University. The project revolved around digitization of the Ray Russell postcard collection which includes over 300 postcards depicting downtown Rochester and other scenes of early community life in the Greater Rochester area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The project uses a database implemented in MS-Access by Rochester staff member Larry Neal. The database provides the potential for multiple views of the information across geography, time, and other dimensions.
• The Romeo District Library worked with The Library Network to provide extensive training in Web publishing to members of the community who desired to participate in the new Web effort. Romeo seeks to deliver information on topics such as transportation services and schedules, in particular for the STAR (Senior Transportation Through Advanced Reservation) project. Romeo has also addressed the needs of its visually and/or physically handicapped residents both by the information they will have online and by the installation of adaptive technologies to enable access by the visually impaired at the library site.

Project Management, Creation, and Funding

Merit Network, Inc. managed the Toolkit project. The Library Network provided training and other support. See the complete project participant information.

The creation of the Toolkit was funded by a grant from Ameritech through the Library of Michigan Foundation.

The components of the Community Information Toolkit may be used in non-commercial applications without further permission from the copyright owner as long as this copyright notice is maintained and prominently displayed.

THIS PRODUCT IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.