The use of academic libraries in turbulent times

Abstract

PurposeThis article explores how an innovation in the University Management Information System was leveraged to incorporate library data by an initially sceptical strategic management team. The rationale was to extract evidence of correlations between library use and student achievement. This kind of information is of particular interest to the institution, which is at present dealing with crises popularly summarised in the slogan "#FeesMustFall" among students who suffer from the effects of poverty and exclusion in higher education. • ApproachThe data extracted from the Data Warehouse was approached from the comparative demographic perspectives of students' degrees of disadvantage in an effort to uncover any hitherto hidden patterns of library use. • FindingsThe use of the library as expressed by footfall and loans was mapped against students' pass rates and their collective grade point averages, indicating a positive relationship between library use and improved academic performance. Comment is offered on some of the relationships between student library behaviour before, during and after the nationwide disruptions that destabilized universities and threatened their survival at the end of 2016, just before the final examination period. The effects on library use of library closures (under threat of damage) at a critical time in the academic year and on student performance are interrogated. • ConclusionsStudents on financial aid, the indicator of disadvantage, come from schools and environments where access to information technology and libraries is very limited, so that library habits are either poorly established or are wholly lacking. At the University of Cape Town, considerable support is in place to encourage the development of library habits among students. Initial analysis of available data indicates that students who have acquired library habits, regardless of unfavourable financial circumstances, do not exhibit behaviour and academic outcomes markedly different from that of their more privileged peers. • Originality and value of the proposalCombining library data with data from the university data warehouse is a new approach in South Africa. It is an approach that is of value both to the library and to the institution at large and it has brought meaningful insights into the role the academic library might be seen to play in promoting student academic achievement.

Relación entre el uso de las bibliotecas universitarias y el desarrollo académico: el caso de las universidades públicas españolas y los estudiantes de grado

“…Atendiendo a los trabajos que se mencionaron en la sección para la revisión de la literatura sobre la relación concreta entre éxito académico y uso de las bibliotecas, puede establecerse que los resultados obtenidos en el presente trabajo coinciden con la mayoría de los resultados de aquellos (Chohan et al, 2018;De Jager et al, 2017;Freitas-Hübner y Silveira-Andretta, 2016;Morić-Filipović, 2012;Owusu-Acheaw, 2014;Wong y Webb, 2011;Yoon y Young, 2008). Por su lado, cabe decir que tan solo en uno de los estudios revisados se obtenía una limitada mejora en el éxito académico de los usuarios de bibliotecas al darse tan solo en una minoría de dichos usuarios (Alharbi y Middleton, 2011).…”

Learning from data reuse: successful and failed experiences in a large public research university library

“…Some researchers demonstrated in their data reuse practices that they practiced adequate data protection in their published research projects. A good example of data reuse can be seen in the study by De Jager, Nassimbeni, Daniels and D'Angelo (2017). De Jager and colleagues studied the correlations between undergraduate students' library use and their GPA using the data obtained from the institution's data warehouse in the University of Cape Town, South Africa.…”

Data Management Practices in Academic Library Learning Analytics: A Critical Review

“…Even moving analytics data from a central secure environment and into Microsoft Excel (Haddow & Joseph, 2010;Pepper & Jantti, 2015) can raise security issues, as an individual password-protected computer used for a wide variety of tasks cannot have the same level of protection as a single-purpose secure server. A significant number of studies, 46 of the 54 examined, imply transferring individual-level data between the library and a central university office (Allison, 2015;Black & Murphy, 2017;Bowles-Terry, 2012;Çetin & Howard, 2016;Collins & Stone, 2014;Coulter, Clarke, & Scamman, 2007;Cox & Jantti, 2012a, 2012bde Jager et al, 2018;Fransen & Peterson, 2016;Goodall & Pattern, 2011;Haddow, 2013;Haddow & Joseph, 2010;Jantti, 2016;Jantti & Cox, 2013;J. L. Jones, 2010;Kot & Jones, 2015;LeMaistre, 2015;LeMaistre et al, 2018;Massengale, Piotrowski, & Savage, 2016;McCarthy, 2017;Montenegro et al, 2016;Murray et al, 2016;Nackerud et al, 2012Nackerud et al, , 2013Odeh, 2012;Pepper & Jantti, 2015;Renaud et al, 2015;Scarletto et al, 2013;Scott, 2014;Soria et al, 2014Soria et al, , 2017aSoria et al, , 2017bSoria et al, , 2013…”

“…This reflects trends in broader learning analytics practices where the analysis of GPA is prevalent (York, Gibson, & Rankin, 2015). Three other studies have been conducted specifically looking at sensitive socioeconomic status compared to library use (Haddow, 2013;Haddow & Joseph, 2010;Soria et al, 2015) and another pair used a related proxy for the socioeconomic status, such as funding aid (de Jager et al, 2018;Montenegro et al, 2016). In addition to libraries holding individual sensitive data points, there is a significant issue that by combining multiple data sets for analytics, anonymity decreases and the sheer amount of sensitive information available about an individual increases (Ohm, 2009).…”

“…Fifteen studies describe data collection strategies where novel analysis of patron data may warrant obtaining informed consent, but no information on the collection of consent is provided. Six libraries analyze student outcomes correlated to card swipes at a library entrance (Collins & Stone, 2014;de Jager et al, 2018;Goodall & Pattern, 2011;J. L. Jones, 2010;Renaud et al, 2015;Scarletto et al, 2013) but there is no published evidence that these patrons are informed of the full use of their ID data and its potential hazards.…”