Roger C. Schonfeld,
Program Director, Ithaka S+R
Ithaka S+R
Deanna Marcum,
Managing Director
Ithaka S+R
This discussion-oriented session will engage library leaders to consider the opportunities and obstacles to incorporating data more effectively in library strategy and decision-making. In recent years, the library assessment community has developed its capacity and increased awareness significantly, and ACRL’s Value of Academics Libraries and ARL’s LibValue have found ways to demonstrate the value of the academic library. Library leaders also need data to support their efforts to transform their organizations’ strategy, services, spaces, and staffing.
This session will focus on two related questions:
• What is the role of data sources such as surveys, usage statistics, budgets, and qualitative data, in planning and managing organizational transformation?
• How can libraries organize themselves to collect and integrate such data sources most effectively to support strategy and decision-making?
Participants will take away from this discussion a number of possibilities for their libraries individually and in the context of their collaborative relationships. Ithaka S+R will bring selected findings from its local and national datasets to help inform the discussion.