2019 Charleston Library Conference

The value proposition around library services & content and how libraries contribute to student and faculty success is of preeminent importance in today’s higher education culture. Libraries are increasingly being asked to justify their contribution to the educational mission of the institution, yet lack the tools and resources necessary to present strong quantitative evidence of impact. In addition, librarianship’s culture around protecting patron privacy is often in conflict with tracking user behavior and user analytics. Institutions of higher education are moving forward rapidly with incorporating advanced learning analytics into their institutional outcome measures to gauge performance along a continuum of educational success metrics. Libraries have largely been left out of these initiatives for a variety of reasons, although efforts across the US, Europe, and Australia are aiming to incorporate library data into overall campus learning analytics efforts. This panel presentation will feature librarian, educator, and vendors will present their views on how librarians can balance the need to protect patron privacy and the ethical use of student educational data with overall learning analytics initiatives on campus.