Comments on: The data you need? Musings on libraries and numbers http://walt.lishost.org/2013/01/the-data-you-need-musings-on-libraries-and-numbers/ The library voice of the radical middle. Thu, 23 May 2013 16:58:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Emily Weak http://walt.lishost.org/2013/01/the-data-you-need-musings-on-libraries-and-numbers/comment-page-1/#comment-97557 Emily Weak Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:11:17 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=4761#comment-97557 One of the reasons I started my website, Hiring Librarians, is because although there is no shortage of opinions about how to get hired by a library, there was not a lot of fact-based stuff.
What I did is distribute surveys to hundreds of people who hire librarians. I’ve posted the results of the multiple choice questions as graphs and tables, but I think the more valuable service is presenting each anonymous response as a post on my blog.
I think this way of presenting data has a lot of advantages over just making a dataset available, or even making a really cool graph. Posting responses over time presents the data in a way that allows it to be narrative, an individual’s opinion, while the standardized format allows it to also be data. It’s digestable, doled out a post at a time, rather than as an overwhelming spreadsheet. And ultimately the totality becomes present in each reader’s life – an understanding changes and grows over time, and my hope is that people stop mistaking one person’s opinion about hiring as fact.
I think that the way facts become meaningful is not just when they are used once, but when they are used repeatedly, when they become incorporated into our conversations and doings. As you are doing here, by asking questions and presenting answers for people to comment on.

]]> By: waltcrawford http://walt.lishost.org/2013/01/the-data-you-need-musings-on-libraries-and-numbers/comment-page-1/#comment-97510 waltcrawford Wed, 30 Jan 2013 01:52:11 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=4761#comment-97510 Thanks for that, Stephen–but while I think I’m good at massaging the data, I still have a ways to go (at least sometimes) in figuring out how to make it meaningful and effective. It’s not easy.

]]> By: Stephen Michael Kellat http://walt.lishost.org/2013/01/the-data-you-need-musings-on-libraries-and-numbers/comment-page-1/#comment-97509 Stephen Michael Kellat Wed, 30 Jan 2013 01:47:32 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=4761#comment-97509 Matt Asay wrote at The Register once upon a time that there is tons of data out there but few interpret it. You’re doing the heavy lifting of interpretation but few are paying attention. THAT is a problem.

I wish I had a solution for fixing it. You need to be front and center providing data interpretation and be very well compensated for speaking truth to those who must hear it.

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