Yoon, AyoungCopeland, Andrea2019-07-192019-07-192019Yoon, A. & Copeland A. (2019). Understanding Social Impact of Data on Local Communities. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 71(4). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-12-2018-0310https://hdl.handle.net/1805/19911• Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the social impact of data on communities from cases of community data utilization. • Design/methodology/approach: This study took an interpretive qualitative approach and conducted a semi-structured phone interview with 45 participants from data intermediaries and local community organizations. • Findings: The results demonstrate both direct and indirect impact of data on local levels, including resolving local problems from data-driven decisions, realizing unknown problems or correcting misrepresented problems, changing community data practices, strengthening community identity, and enhancing the community’s data skills • Practical implications: The research shows that communities’ data utilization supported community-led actions and initiatives from the bottom-up perspective, which demonstrates the need for supporting communities’ data work. • Social implications: Minimizing inequality in data utilization should be resolved so that all communities can benefit from the power of data. • Originality/value: By demonstrating evidence of data being critical to encouraging communities’ data utilization, this study fills the gap in existing research, which lacks a clear explanation for how the potential of data can be realized at the local level.en-USAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United Statesdata curationdata reuseopen dataSocialimpactCommunity informaticsData impactArticle