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Adding Data Literacy Skills to Your Toolkit Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Purdue Libraries and School of Information Research Studies 3-16-2020 Adding Data Literacy Skills to Your Toolkit Megan R. Sapp Nelson Purdue University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_fsdocs Part of the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Sapp Nelson, Megan R., "Adding Data Literacy Skills to Your Toolkit" (2020). Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research. Paper 230. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_fsdocs/230 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. JAN FEB information 20 V 24 | N 01 outlook THE MAGAZINE OF THE SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION DATA LITERACY JAN FEB information 20 V 24 | N 01 outlook THE MAGAZINE OF THE SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION INFO INSIGHTS DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIOIN 2 Data Literacy 24 Creating an Inclusive STUART HALES Culture: A Call to Action AMANDA FERNANDEZ DATA LITERACY 4 Identifying, Accessing and ON LEADERSHIP Evaluating Data 26 Jumping Hurdles: How to JENNIFER HUCK Build on Your Strengths CINDY HILL 7 Seven Baseline Data Literacy Competencies for INSIDE INFO Employees 27 Board OKs Proposal to WENDY POTHIER AND ‘Right-Size’ Chapter and PATRICIA CONDON Division Structure • Chapter and Division Volunteers 10 Adding Data Literacy Gain New Leadership Skills to Your Toolkit Insights • Board Approves MEGAN SAPP NELSON Proposal to Change Association’s Name 12 Becoming Data Literate: A Review of Selected Sites WENDY MANN 14 Promoting Information Literacy in Corporate Research JOE TRAGERT 17 Using Data for Civic Good STEPHEN SHERMAN 21 Search Engines and Algorithms are Biased. Here’s Why That Matters JASMINDER BAINS INFO INSIGHTS Data Literacy nificant concern about supporting data Librarians are ideally positioned to help their clients become in the library has nothing to do with data literate, and several resources are available to help discovery at all. Finding the right data them hone their data skills. can be challenging, to be sure, but real problems can arise regarding access. I BY STUART HALES frequently work with patrons who know exactly what data they need, but they are having trouble using it for a variety of reasons.” To the list of the many ways that special “There has been a focus on giving Adding Data Literacy Skills to Your librarians and information profession- employees self-service access to data, Toolkit als benefit their organizations—helping rather than building individuals’ self- Megan Sapp Nelson, MLS them make better decisions, improve sufficiency to work with it,” said Jordan “The Data Engagement Opportunities their productivity, and so on—we can Morrow, head of data literacy at Qlik. Scaffold builds upon the existing skills now add reducing sick days, according “Yet, expecting employees to work with of librarians and projects them into data to a recent survey by Accenture and data without providing the right training literacy and data management, thereby Qlik. or appropriate tools is a bit like going pointing the way for librarians to extend The survey report, “The Human fishing without the rods, bait or nets. their skills base to build discrete servic- Impact of Data Literacy,” states that You may have led them to water, but es. Rather than attend trainings to learn while nearly all employees recognize you aren’t helping them catch a fish.” generally, librarians can use this tool that data is an asset, just 25% believe Librarians are uniquely situated to to discover how building up skill sets they’re fully prepared to use data effec- help their clients better understand and in specific areas can result in concrete tively, and only 21% feel confident work with data, but they sometimes lack service offerings.” in their ability to read, understand, the skills needed to assume this role. question and work with data. While The articles in this issue of Information Seven Baseline Data Literacy these findings may not be surprising, Outlook can help fill this void. From Competencies for Employees their implications are downright dis- advice about websites that offer training Wendy G. Pothier, MS, MSLS, and turbing—roughly one-third of surveyed courses about data to an overview of the Patricia B. Condon, PhD employees said they will find an alterna- seven baseline competencies for data- “Sets of competencies for data lit- tive method to complete a task to avoid literate employees to a tool that can eracy began to emerge in the 2010s using data, and nearly as many said help librarians identify which skills to and were mapped to the Information they had taken at least one day of sick learn, the articles in this issue offer an Literacy Competency Standards for leave due to stress caused by dealing abundance of useful advice to librarians Higher Education developed by the with data and information. and information professionals interest- Association of College and Research These sick days and time lost to ed in becoming—and helping their Libraries. While these competencies are workarounds add up to lost produc- clients become—data literate. Following designed to be flexible and adaptable, tivity—more than $100 billion in the are excerpts from those articles: translating them to skills needed in the United States alone. Yet rather than workforce is not necessarily straightfor- Identifying, Accessing and teach their employees how to use data, ward. In our 2019 article, we matched Evaluating Data many employers have prioritized access extant data literacy competencies to Jennifer Huck, MS, MLS over understanding. workplace needs and distinguished “One little-discussed but very sig- seven baseline competencies for data- literate employees.” STUART HALES is editor of Information Outlook and content Promoting Information Literacy in director at SLA. He can be reached at [email protected]. Corporate Research Joe Tragert, MBA “As the Association of American Colleges & Universities’ annual survey of employers notes, one of the largest functional skill gaps of new employees 2 INFORMATION OUTLOOK V24 N01 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 INFO INSIGHTS (according to managers) is their inability coordinate open data initiatives in their Want more? This issue also contains to collaborate and their reluctance to communities. Cities and research insti- the second installment of a two-part reach out to colleagues when seek- tutions can partner with libraries to column on diversity and inclusion by ing information… One way to mitigate not only boost the visibility of their Amanda Fernandez of Inclusifyy as well these deficiencies is to meet research- data collections but also to provide as an “On Leadership” column by SLA ers halfway. To do this, librarians need access to data through a trusted, third- Past President Cindy Hill on using your to recognize the researcher’s persona at party intermediary. Moreover, librarians strengths to enhance your leadership that time and for that task.” and information professionals have the skills. Read, reflect, and rethink! knowledge and experience to be able Becoming Data Literate: A Review of to provide data literacy training that is Selected Sites clear and practical.” Wendy Mann, MLS, MPP “As a library professional who works Search Engines and Algorithms are in an academic library helping students Biased. Here’s Why That Matters and colleagues of all skill levels, I Jasminder Bains, BS often recommend resources or tutori- “Similar to how people need evidence als based on the individual’s skill level and information to draw conclusions, or the problem they are trying to solve. algorithms need data to be able to I suggest taking this approach when make decisions and judgments. There determining where to start your self- is, however, one key difference between directed training.” people and algorithms. Algorithms will make the same decision 100% of the Using Data for Civic Good time—unless adjusted by a computer Stephen Sherman, MSLS programmer—while people may make “Libraries are uniquely positioned to exceptions or get distracted by other lead data literacy programming and variables.” INFORMATION OUTLOOV24 N01 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 202019 3 DATA LITERACY Identifying, Accessing and Evaluating Data FINDING AND ACCESSING DATA CAN BE PROBLEMATIC, BUT MANY OF THE SKILLS USED IN TRADITIONAL REFERENCE CAN BE APPLIED TO DATA DISCOVERY. BY JENNIFER HUCK, MS, MLS elping patrons find data niques I use when responding to data and so on. A researcher studying a is notoriously difficult and requests. I will address the questions broader unit (e.g., a country) might be frustrating. Common dif- you should answer before you begin satisfied with data using a smaller unit ficulties include the lack your search, where to look for data, of observation (e.g., districts), but the of a single place to look for data, dif- potential access issues, and how to reverse is unlikely to be true. Hficulty finding data specific to a time evaluate data. Geographic coverage. What kind of period or place, and having to man- geographic coverage does the research- age patron expectations (Kubas and Get Answers to These er need? For example, does she need McBurney 2019). Fortunately, many of Questions First data only for a local state or province, or the skills used in traditional reference for several specific countries? In my experience, patrons will most can be applied to data discovery. Time period. How many years’ worth often reach out about a topic, but with I am the data librarian at the University of data is she seeking? Does she want widely varying levels of specificity. You of Virginia Library, an academic library only the most recent year available, or will save yourself a lot of time and effort at an R1 research institution. I most fre- as many years’ back as possible? if you learn the details upfront, so be quently help students, faculty and staff Data or statistics? Is the researcher sure to ask for clarification on the fol- in the social sciences, commerce, and trying to find data to use for her own lowing topics as soon as you receive a education, and less frequently in law, secondary analysis? For example, a request.
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