User data Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Data Collection and Privacy

By Greg Landgraf | September 4, 2018

It’s an example of learning analytics, the use of data to understand and optimize learning and learning environments. The general concept isn’t new—the university’s announcement noted that student retention has been studied for more than 30 years—but the amount of data that is easy to generate with card swipes has exploded in recent years. And … Continue reading Data Collection and Privacy →

The Future of Data Privacy

By George M. Eberhart | February 10, 2018

Some corporations, Ayala said, are laboriously setting up two different privacy systems, one for Europe and another for the US. However, the major players are unifying their rules to comply with the GDPR, “which is an indicator that European trends are starting to become global trends. Facebook and Google just rolled out new privacy centers … Continue reading The Future of Data Privacy →

Improve Your Analytics Data

By Tabatha Farney | November 1, 2016

Reduce junk traffic Traffic generated by spambots and junk referral websites is a nasty issue that all web analytics tools face. Spam traffic generates sessions and pageviews by nonhuman visitors and clutters up your data by making it difficult to identify usage by your website’s real users. It also tends to inflate such negative metrics … Continue reading Improve Your Analytics Data →

Tess Mayer, Daniel Tilton, Mark Andersen, Diana Plunkett

By the Numbers

By Krystal Corbray | June 29, 2015

In the library world, data drives almost everything we do. It is at the core of cataloging, it’s essential to collection development, and it is the demographics that we collect and analyze in order to learn more about our patrons and our communities. But while many librarians are expert data gatherers, it can be a … Continue reading By the Numbers →

Latest Library Links

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Graduate students at University of Texas at Austin have been sharing their work with the public at the successful and popular program Science Under the Stars for 10 years. Now, with a new offshoot offering called Neighborhood Science, the students, primarily from the top-ranked ecology, evolution, and behavior program, are working to connect even more of the Austin community to science by bringing their informative and entertaining talks—on topics ranging from superheroes to singing mice—right into Austin Public Libraries, currently the Twin Oaks and Howson branches, on Thursday evenings. The talks are delivered with families in mind.

University of Texas at Austin, College of Natural Sciences, Mar. 25
1h

Charles McClure has been selected to receive the 2019 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, sponsored by OCLC and LITA. McClure is the Francis Eppes Professor of Information Studies in the School of Information at Florida State University and the Director of its Information Use Management and Policy Institute. The award honors research relevant to the development of information technologies and recognizes a body of work spanning years, if not the majority of a career.

LITA, Mar. 25
17h

Next week’s vote on the European Union’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is an opportunity to advance library services. But unless an article that would effectively force the filtering of speech on the internet is removed, it could also do a lot of harm. The directive includes valuable progress on key dossiers for libraries, making it easier to carry out text and data mining, preserve documents, and give access to works that are not available on the market. But blocking free speech would be inevitable under Article 13 (renumbered to 17 in the voting document), a point already underlined by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Mar. 24
17h

Neely Tucker writes: “Our colleague Cait Miller published a pair of delightful posts about songs in the women’s suffrage movement on the In the Muse blog recently, the most recent of which is here. But it being Women’s History Month, we just had to know more about one of the sheet music covers she featured—the one with the remarkable title, ‘She’s Good Enough to be Your Baby’s Mother and She’s Good Enough to Vote with You.’ Published in the winter of 1916,when the suffrage movement was a hot-button political issue, the song (and its sheet music) are a nifty bit of insight into an earlier version of American pop culture.”

Library of Congress Blog, Mar. 25
18h

Susan Kriete writes: “When family historians come to the New York Public Library’s Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, and Genealogy, they want to immediately ‘type their name’ into a database, not be referred to a book about how to trace their family tree. Genealogists are willing to hunt through thousands of digitized records to (not) find their ancestors instead of referring to a genealogy guidebook. Consulting a genealogy research guide will save you time, effort, and frustration, and also lead you to information and sources you might never discover otherwise. Here are a few examples of how that happens.”

New York Public Library blogs, Mar. 25
18h

Reforma, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, has received the 2019 Angel Award, sponsored by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, that recognizes outstanding contributions to children’s literacy and efforts to bring picture books to children everywhere. The award will be presented at Guastavino’s in New York City on September 26. Reforma is an ALA affiliate organization.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Mar. 20
19h

April 9 is National Library Workers Day, a time to recognize library professionals for their expertise and leadership skills in transforming lives and communities through education and lifelong learning. The day also reminds the public that library workers serve as community compasses that lead users to endless opportunities for engagement, enrichment, and development. Library users are invited to “submit a star” by providing a testimonial about a favorite library employee. Examples of nominations can include how library staff helped with learning 3D printing or writing a résumé.

Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Mar. 25

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