If there is one word to describe the economy over the past 12 months, it's rebuilding.

People are rebuilding their careers. Governments at all levels are rebuilding their budgets based on revenue shortfalls. The financial systems of this country and others are being built and rebuilt during the most turbulent of times.

Private enterprises are rebuilding their business models in the face of unprecedented changes in the worlds of technology, energy and consumer wealth.

Rebuilding isn't a bad thing as long as you understand the situation from all angles.

That's what this series of stories is intended to do, help you and me understand our local economy as it rebuilds.

The economic crisis has generated a lot of noise about economic issues. It's hard to keep track of. We took on this project trying to sift through that noise by not concentrating so much on what is planned for the future, but focusing instead on what pieces exist in our Douglas County economy and how they work together.

For me, there is a bit of a disconnect at work in our economy. I've been to many economic forums where entrepreneurship, small businesses and local businesses are touted as the key to righting the economy.

At the same time, people I know (myself included) spend a lot of time and money at national chain stores for home improvement supplies, dinner, groceries, clothes, etc. We also work for others. I know far more people who work for companies and organizations than themselves.

So what do we make of all of this? How do we reconcile the ideas from the economic analysts and the reality of our daily lives? Read on and we'll find out together. What I hope we take away from this is a better understanding of our place in the economy. If we have a better sense of how our decisions about where we eat, where we shop, where we live, where we work and how we work, we'll do a much better job rebuilding for the future.

We're embarking on this project with a new partner, the Douglas County Libraries. We've worked jointly on this project because the newspaper and the library have the shared mission of providing you with information.

While the newspaper side of this project will tackle these economic issues to a depth that is impressive for us, these complicated issues deserve more attention.

That's where the libraries come in, to add more depth and perspective and research capabilities to the information we're presenting in the newspaper than we've ever had before. With their help the information our reporters gather on these important issues will have life beyond the printed page, which we'll explain later. But for now, start learning about your economy.