Correlation ≠ causation Data are pieces of information, like the number of books checked out at the library or reference questions asked. Those pieces of information are simply points on a chart or numbers in a spreadsheet until someone interprets their meaning. People create charts and graphs so that we can visualize that meaning more […]
Average is one of those statistics that comes up a lot. What does it mean? How can we use it? What are its limitations? Today we’re going to talk about both the average, also known as the mean, and another statistic called the median. Means and medians are both ways to find out what’s typical […]
It’s hard to know who you can trust out there. “Fake news” is now a prevalent concept in society and the internet makes it possible for anyone to publish—well, anything. As library professionals, you’ve probably already acquired a great deal of experience determining the credibility of sources. Many of the same skills are needed to […]
Welcome back! We’re excited to have you with us on this data journey. To work with data, it helps to understand specific concepts—what is per capita, what is an average, how to investigate sources. These are all valuable skills and knowledge that help you navigate and understand data. What you may not realize is that […]
Denver Public Library (DPL), in collaboration with Library Research Service (LRS), was recently featured in School Library Journal. The article highlights DPL’s evaluation of their summer learning program and use of data to inform programmatic decision making. Below is a summary of the results. To learn more about their data collection methods, analysis, and […]
As our brains process information, we constantly make comparisons. It’s how we decide if something is good or bad—by it being better or worse than something else. However, like apples and oranges, not all things can readily be compared, even if they appear similar enough on the surface. We often make this mistake with data […]
Hello, world! We can all agree that these are strange times we are living through. Here at the Library Research Service, we’ve been thinking about how we can help. What skills could we share that might be useful to library staff and our communities? As library and information professionals, before this pandemic we already spent […]
Climate change may be the theme of this year’s Earth Day celebration, but more and more, it is serving as a foundation for libraries.
Digging in to the latest Pew Research Center’s survey of who is reading books and how they are accessing them.
A meta-analysis of findings from 38 previous library ROI studies found that, on average, the return value for public libraries is 4 to 5 times the amount invested.
