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Data-Driven Decisions
A Practical Toolkit for Librarians and Information Professionals
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eBook - ePub
Data-Driven Decisions
A Practical Toolkit for Librarians and Information Professionals
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About This Book
Data-Driven Decisions: A Practical Toolkit for Library and Information Professionals is a simple, jargon-free guide to using data for decision making in library services. The book walks readers step-by-step through each stage of implementing, reviewing and embedding data-driven decisions in their organisation, providing accessible visualisations, top tips, and downloadable tools to support readers on their data journey. Starting with the absolute basics of using data, the author creates a framework for building skills and knowledge slowly until the reader is comfortable with even complex uses of data. The book begins with an exploration of the foundations of data-driven decisions in libraries including a look at the impact of the current financial climate on resources, theoretical foundations of data collection and analysis, and how this book can be used in practice. The next section takes readers through the data-driven decisions model, providing a guide for understanding and a manual for implementation of the model. Finally, the book provides further perspectives and reading surrounding analysis and implementation of data-driven decisions. This section aims to give supplementary and focused information on different areas of data-driven decisions which can be included in processes once the reader understands the foundation of the book from earlier chapters. Highly practical and written in an accessible style, this book is an essential resource for librarians and information professionals who increasingly need to justify decisions on programmes and services through quantifiable data.
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PART 1
Background
1Introduction
Well hello there! Welcome to my little book about all things data. Delightful to have you here.
I can assume that the fact that you have begun this introductory chapter means one of three things:
ā¢You love data and you will read any book which covers the topic.
ā¢You donāt love data but appreciate the need to learn more about it.
ā¢You picked this up by accident and are now regretting your choice.
Whatever your reason for picking up this tome today, I hope it allows you to love and use data a little bit more than you did before.
About the author
It feels uncomfortable to start with a section about myself, but as you will find out when you delve further into this book, context is everything, and Iām not about to deprive you of it here!
If you had asked me ten years ago what I would spend most of my time learning and discussing in my career, I can guarantee that data would not have come anywhere near the top of the list. I was never bad at maths, but I was never in love with it. I loved the arts and reading, and I dropped subjects like maths and science as soon as possible to pursue more theatrical endeavours. This culminated in me taking a degree in Music and English where the maths and statistics part of my brain was left to gather dust.
In the early days of my career, I spent most of my time working with charities to improve the care system and the support offered to children in care and care leavers (like myself). My experiences working with the care system were formative in my decision to move into libraries for my career. I started working in libraries because I believe that they are a great equaliser, and that libraries can be the difference between someone succeeding in their goals and not having the opportunity to even try. There were also other more surprising takeaways which have stuck with me and influenced my approaches.
After my graduate traineeship at the London Library, my first full-time professional post in the information profession was at a private school library. I naively thought that because the school was so well funded and the library so well presented, we wouldnāt have to fight to be seen as relevant, or for funding, or to be used appropriately. It will come as no surprise to you that I very quickly realised that this school library (like many) was undervalued and misunderstood, and because of this we were not able to support the number of students we should in the way we could.
This was the moment my background working (and living) in the care system kicked into action. When working in charities, or in any underfunded body, fighting to be seen, understood and supported is a core part of the gig. How do we do this? First we shout loudly, and second we know how to evidence our value. Thatās what I did in this role ā I collected data, wrote reports, made changes to our service based on the data, and then wrote more reports. Thus a data lover was born.
Using evidence to make decisions and prove value followed me through my transition into higher education and in every role Iāve held in the information profession.
The wider context
Now weāre done with my life story, letās look at the current context in the information profession, which has spawned the need for this book.
To say that it has been a difficult few decades for the library and information profession might be one of the biggest understatements I could make. In the last three decades the UK and the USA have had three major recessions: the early 1990s recession, the Great Recession and, finally, the COVID-19 recession (Investopedia, 2021). Alongside recurrent financial instability, weāve also seen the digital revolution, which has had a significant impact on how library and information services are used, what services we offer, and what our role is within wider institutions.
With the various recessions and the digital revolution, library and information services have naturally faced increasing financial challenges. Across the sector we have seen services closed, restructures which have significantly reduced staff numbers, and cuts to resourcing budgets, to name a few. On top of this weāre seeing already restricted budgets challenged with increased costs of key resources such as online materials, or the need for additional resources to keep up with the changing needs of our users and organisations. As well as various financial difficulties our sector is also having continuously to develop roles, services and our offer to remain relevant.
Naturally we canāt fail to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, where regardless of skills, funds or nature, information professionals pivoted overnight to provide fully online services. The work done by libraries over this period has been nothing short of exceptional, but what does it mean for us moving forward? It is highly unlikely that the expectations born from COVID-19 and online services will go away, and instead we will work with a shift in needs of offline services alongside a continued increase in use of online services. Essentially, when coming out of a global recession, library services will need to redesign two services to work in harmony, both of which will likely have increased usage and costs over the previous model.
Thatās a lot for one sector to be dealing with over 30 years, right?
What do we do about it?
We canāt change the global situation, and we arenāt going to be able to predict or stop future recessions, pandemics or revolutions. What we can do, though, is prepare, stay ahead of the curve, and make our services as effective, innovative and relevant as possible.
Arguably the factor that most impacts library and information services right now is financial scrutiny, which may lead to cuts in services and budgets, freezes in budgets, or much more difficulty in getting increases in budgets for new developments. This continued (and in many cases increased) financial difficulty means that:
ā¢services that are not working as effectively and efficiently as possible are more likely to be scrutinised
ā¢services need to be creative to find resources within current means to continue developing
ā¢staff need to be able to articulate and prove the value and impact of services to protect them against cuts and argue for additional funds.
But how do we do this? Well my friend, considering you picked up this book it wonāt surprise you to know that in my humble opinion, data is the answer.
The what, the why and the where of the data-driven decision process
Why data-driven decisions?
Data-driven decision making is a well-developed concept with a huge amount of literature on the subject focusing across professions. At its core, data-driven decision making is about being data informed and using your understanding of data to feed into all aspects of your decision making and planning. If we are able to commit to data-driven decision making we can:
ā¢examine our services to ensure they are effective and efficient
ā¢identify areas for improvement or areas of success which can be replicated
ā¢identify changing needs and trends in order to develop new services and strategies around them
ā¢articulate our strengths as a service and the importance of maintaining it.
Considering the context outlined above, it has never been more important for library and information services staff to be able to harness and use data for decision making. Our services are transformative. They make a difference to peopleās lives, to research, to learning. If we are not able to commit to new ways of developing our services and working within the language and needs of decision makers in our organisations (using data), our services will always be at risk.
A toolkit is born
Although I did not come up with the concept of data-driven decision making, in this book I have aimed to make the act (and art) of data-driven decision making more accessible. The way that data is tied up with science, maths and technology, and the need to be able to use systems in new ways, can make it complicated and scary for many people to understand and use data. In my experience this is particularly prevalent in librarianship where using data to its fullest potential and making better use of technology has been slower than in other industries. There are such varied backgrounds and routes into the industry that confidence or experience in using data and technology is not guaranteed and data and digital literacy levels among staff can vary massively.
As my experience and love for data grew I wanted to get data usage and data-driven decision making embedded across my team and across my library service. Naturally I quickly hit a wall where my colleagues and staff just werenāt comfortable or confident enough to take an active role in the work that I was suggesting. I had an uphill battle to explain and help them to understand why we needed data. Iām a firm believer that you can learn anything with the right training, so I tried to find resources and programmes which I could use with my team. Unfortunately, everything I came across just didnāt hit the right level or was so abstract that staff struggled to transfer the information to their own real-life needs.
It was clear to me that there was a gap in quality training materials available. From working with colleagues across the sector it was obvious that there was a need for a no-nonsense and accessible step-by-step guide to break down how to begin using data and how it can be used to improve services through informed decision making. This is essentially how the idea for the data-driven decisions toolkit came to be.
The toolkit
We are at the stage where we can address the elephant in the room ā what is this toolkit?
The data-driven decisions toolkit is a simple, jargon free, step-by-step guide for understanding and implementing data collection and analysis for decision making in library services. It is designed to walk you through each stage of implementing and embedding data-driven decision making, filling in the gaps that a lot of training has, and putting it in the context of library and information services. The toolkit is designed to be used however you need, whether to follow the entire process from start to finish or dip into a specific subject, depending on what you are wanting to learn or refresh. It can also be used as a tool to consolidate data practices and create a common language for a team to work under.
How does this toolkit fill the gap?
Over the...