The Impact of the Academic Library on Learning in the University
Project Summary
This project will provide guidance to project advisory group (PAG) institutions and other libraries on how to best design and implement empirical, holistic library learning analytics (LLA) studies of the links from library usage, to learning outcomes such as research, course instruction, and publications. The project will produce a set of tools, scripts, and protocols that will be freely available to all libraries. The study will serve as a template for other libraries with respect to: 1) studies that collect and store library use data with individual identifiers while maintaining the privacy of individuals; 2) designing and implementing a holistic LLA study of the link from library use to multiple learning outcomes, and; 3) creating a secure cyberinfrastructure (data repository, virtual enclave, and dashboard) for LLA research that facilitates collaboration in a community of diverse institutions in the US and Canada. This study addresses three major impediments to this type of holistic investigation: a) balancing user privacy needs with access to data with identifiers; b) holistic LLA probes of the library, and; c) how to leverage subject domain, statistical, and computational expertise at U-M and PAG institutions in order to enable even resource-strapped members of the PAG community to conduct the LLA they need to better assess how libraries impact learning.