Fictitious Public Library's Strategic Agenda for Data Literacy & Research Services

This project is a strategic plan for implementing a suite of data literacy-related services in a fictitious public library.

Methods

For the benchmarking exercise, I surveyed the websites of 4 public libraries in major North American cities and evaluated them on a scale of 0-4 in the categories of Data-Focused Collections & Guides, Data Curation, Data Literacy Instruction, and Data Consultation Services. To do this, I created a custom rubric for scoring in each category based on the landscape of data services in public libraries that I observed. I then conducted a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats for a public library seeking to implement data services. I set goals for the strategic plan and created a roadmap broken into different phases.

My role

I was the sole author of this project.

Learning Outcomes Achieved: Foundations of Library & Information Studies

This project applies my understanding of core library functions of collection building, curation, instruction, and research services, and applies common related theories and approaches to the specific environment of public library data services. The benchmarking study displays an understanding of how core library services of reference, instruction, and collection development vary in different contexts and environments, while the strategic plan applies this knowledge to development of new services