Big Data and Academic Libraries: The Quest for Informed Decision-Making

Libraries remain one of the last places on campus where the purging of usage data is encouraged and "tracking" is a dirty word. While some libraries have demonstrated the usefulness of analytics, opponents bring up issues of privacy and debate the feasibility of student-generated library data for planning and assessment. Using a study conducted at the University Library, California State University, Long Beach, the authors of this article identified practical knowledge of data research that academic librarians will benefit from understanding. Readers will learn about the role campus culture plays in data gathering, be exposed to the complexities of learning analytics and Institutional Review Board (IRB) clearance, and read how the authors weighed the ethical use of big data analysis for assessing students.