2015 Charleston Library Conference

Registration Cost: $110

The first half of the preconference will feature a discussion of how to conduct a data audit to help librarians consider the variety of information they can collect—or already do—to comprehensively evaluate collections and services. Attendees will be encouraged to consider alternative data along with traditional vendor provided statistics, such as Google Analytics for website traffic, and/or circulation, instruction and other public services statistics. This will be followed by a discussion of how to identify campus priorities for assessment, with reflective activities to help align library goals to their institution’s mission and vision.

Following the break will be a demonstration and hands-on workshop featuring various visualization tools available to convert statistical data into visually compelling presentations.  All attendees who register in advance will be asked to bring a laptop, and will be learn to use a selection of visualization tools to create graphical representations of data, including freely available resources, commonly used productivity software (such as Excel), and specialized tools (such as Tableau). Attendees will be invited to bring samples of their own institutions’ data if they would like, but sample datasets of a variety of types of data will be provided as well.

NOTE: Participants will be required to bring their own laptops.