Business and economics librarians’ insights on data literacy instruction in practice: An exploration of themes

Abstract

Based on an applied thematic analysis, this study identifies data literacy education practices in the business and economics librarian profession. Five themes emerged from the interviews: Roles and Responsibilities; Expertise; Pedagogy and Teaching; Professional Development; and, Institutional Support. This article is for librarians who find themselves working with data and those who want to do so. The insights shared from participants offer trajectories for administrators to support the work of data literacy education. The article’s recommended future research directions section provides areas to build community and develop inquiry for interested researchers’ ongoing work in data literacy instruction and academic librarianship.

Keywords:

• Data literacy
• institutional support
• instruction
• professional development
• qualitative research

Acknowledgments

The researcher would like to thank the participants of this study who contributed their insights and experiences in rich context. The researcher would like to acknowledge the support from JBFL editors of the special double issue on data, Celia Ross and Bobray Bordelon, who offered their encouragement throughout the study. The researcher would like to acknowledge the institutional support from her library dean who offered his leadership support during the project including budget for transcription services and support for participation in the Institute of Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL). The researcher is grateful to the IRDL project leaders, instructors, her mentor, and all cohort members for their community, guidance, and support for the project. The researcher would like to acknowledge that her institution provided release time through the 2019–2020 Research Fellows Program. The researcher would also like to acknowledge the members of her research network who provide consistent counsel on this and other projects. Lastly, the researcher also wishes to thank her husband who provided full-time care of their two children during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, without which the research analysis and article itself would undoubtedly not have been able to be written.

Notes

1 Rev transcription software: www.rev.com

2 Dedoose mixed methods data analysis software www.dedoose.com

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charissa Odelia Jefferson

Charissa Odelia Jefferson, M.A., M.L.S., is the Labor Economics Librarian at Princeton University serving as the liaison to the Industrial Relations Section. Prior to this position, she was tenured as the Business and Data Librarian at California State University, Northridge serving as subject specialist for the business college. Before her role in academic librarianship, she was the research librarian at the Milken Institute where she assisted economists in finding data for their projects, reports, and publications. Jefferson’s scholarship has appeared in Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review. She has published several lesson plans and book chapters with ACRL Press and continues to collaborate on teaching with economic data.