The Library Assessment and Metrics Council (LAMC) hosted its first Data Days on Monday, July 10, at University Park. The event aimed to bring the Libraries together to learn about data use throughout the University Libraries. In all, 12 sessions were delivered, ranging in duration from 20 to 90 minutes by 12 presenters.

While many of the sessions were informational, two workshops were held, including an introduction to R and best practices in Qualtrics & survey design. Informational sessions included multiple perspectives on quantitative and qualitative methods, library data and external reporting, how to create representative samples, a primer on open data, as well as data used in decision making, where examples from Public Services, Acquisitions, a Commonwealth Campus library, and a University Park branch library were discussed.

Participation was broader than anticipated, with 34 individuals registered — 25 faculty and nine staff, who represented eight campuses and 23 libraries or departments. Evaluations were received from 21 participants and were overwhelmingly positive.

I’d like to thank the organizing committee for their efforts, Joe Salem for sponsoring the event, all the speakers for putting together and delivering excellent talks, and everyone who attended for making our first annual Data Days a really successful event. Slides available and sessions delivered in Foster were recorded. All are linked and available on the Data Days intranet page (accessible via login to all University Libraries employees).

– submitted by Steve Borrelli, head of Library Assessment