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Data storytelling

for librarians

centering ethics, protection and transparency

Rebekah Silverstein

Elizabeth Szkirpan

06-20-2025

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Storytelling

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Metrics & Metadata

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Hello we're glad you're here!

06-20-2025

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Full name

Book Club Host

Rebekah Silverstein

Elizabeth Szkirpan

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Ethics

Librarian Practices

  1. we collect a lot of data
  2. neutrality is not a thing
  3. we are bound to a code
  4. we collect a lot of data
  5. we are data stewards
  6. new risks blur the lines
  7. consent and privacy
  8. what not to collect

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Ethics

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Takeaways___Q&A

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DEII Protection

  • ALA Code of Ethics: Upholding access, privacy, and inclusion in data use
  • OLA Values: Promoting intellectual freedom, protecting against surveillance
  • FERPA / HIPAA / PPRA: Legal frameworks that guard educational and health data
  • FAIR / CARE Principles: Community-centered approaches for open, equitable, and respectful data use
  • Oklahoma Library Law: Title 65 §65-1-105 on confidentiality of user records

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Reporting

Library Type

What Gets Reported?

What's Missing?

Why It Matters?

Public

Usage, circulation, program attendance, collection size, door counts

accessibility, community, longitudinal outcomes

advocacy opportunities, picture of community needs

School

collection size, circulation stats, instructional sessions

student achievement, (beyond GPA) educator support, demographic maps , OER, ERM

demonstrating value to administrators, advocating for educators & students

Academic

enrollment, staffing, expenditures, titles databases collections, usage statistics

longitudinal student success, diverse usage impact, OER adoption, eResources

ability to align with institutional equity goals, demonstrate CPU, ROI

Private

Similar to Academic, but often more internal reporting

Intellectual freedom & internal policies

Need for robust internal policies to fill legal gaps

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Reporting

Jurisdiction

Law/Framework

What It Covers

Library Relevance

Federal (U.S.)

FERPA

Student Education Records

Academic/School Library Student Data

HIPAA

Personal Health Information

Health Services/Partnerships

Privacy Act of 1974

Federal Agency Records

Gov't/Federally Funded Libraries

USA PATRIOT Act

Expanded Surveillance Powers

Challenged Library Privacy; Led to Advocacy

ALA Library Bill of Rights & Privacy Interpretation

Foundational Privacy Ethics

Guides U.S. Library Policy & Practice

State (Oklahoma)

Title 65 §1-105

Prohibits User Record Disclosure

Direct Patron Privacy Protection for ALL OK Libraries

State (Connecticut)

CTDPA & lt;br>(eff. July 2023)

Consumer Data Rights

Vendor Contracts, Digital Services Data Sharing, censorship

International

GDPR (EU)

EU Citizen Personal Data

Vendors/Platforms Serving EU Users

IFLA Statement on Privacy

Global Library Privacy Principles

International Ethical Guidance

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Policy

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Create

Refine

Advocate

Create foundational policies that reflect librarian professional and core values that should be at the center of library work.

Refine existing policies in response to the changing data landscapes and users needs, including by adjusting for new political pressures.

Advocate by using policies and data to inform stakeholders, shape institutional practices, and guide librarian data practices.

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Storytelling

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Ethical Framing

Advocacy

Transparency

Equity Method

Storytelling as:

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Storytelling

Converting data to understandable, relatable, and actionable ethical expressions.

Metrics & Metadata

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Storytelling

Misuse & Pitfalls

Overcollection

Gathering more data than necessary or gathering data without clear purpose can weaken the trust users place in libraries.

Even if unused, overcollection also increases the risk of data exposure, misinterpretation, or misuse and can violate privacy laws or policies.

Interpreting data without context, using flawed or incomplete datasets, making assumptions without evidence, failing to apply an equity or bias lens, and neglecting peer review may lead to untruthful, biased, or incorrect interpretations of our data and data analyses.

We may understand what happens in AI at a high level but not what happens in specific AI models. Using AI without proper ethical considerations can lead to perpetuation of bias, erode transparency, and risk user trust, especially if users are uncomfortable with AI.

Unvetted Analysis

Black Box AI

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Storytelling

Misuse & Pitfalls

Telling only positive stories from data that omit complexity, context, or limitations can have consequences outside of eroding user trust, such as accidental erasure, reinforcing bias or narratives, or misrepresentation of libraries or their users.

Conflating operational metrics with impact, identifying correlation as causation, et cetera undermine data storytelling while inaccurately representing quality, equity, and efficacy. Conflation can reinforce some narratives while ignoring others, such as why certain users are missing from our data or why some resources are underutilized.

Be mindful of the data your users have consented you to collect and how they anticipate their data to be utilized. Leveraging data in unexpected ways, even if anonymized, undermines transparency, disempowers users, and contracts core library beliefs.

Storytelling Gaps

Conflation

Neglecting Consent

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Ethics

Policy

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Storytelling

Misuse & Pitfalls

Ethical Data Wrangling: This is the process of cleaning, structuring, and enriching raw data into a consistent format. For librarians, this means:

Anonymizing and Aggregating: Your primary tools for protecting privacy. Convert individual records into group statistics: , instead of tracking one student's checkouts, report the total number of checkouts by first-year students in a specific major.

De-identification: Employ techniques like suppression (removing sensitive data), generalization (making data less specific, e.g., age range instead of exact age), or perturbation (adding noise to data) to safeguard privacy while retaining structure.

Data Minimization: Only collect the data you absolutely need for your intentional, ethical purpose.

If you don't need PII, don't collect it.

Protecting PII at Every Step: Librarians are wonder woman unicorn lasso wrangling data stewards.

Librarian Practices: Data Wrangling & PII Protection

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Secure Storage & Access Control: Work with ITto ensure all library data, especially anything sensitive, is stored securely, encrypted, and accessible only to authorized personnel. Many legacy library systems weren't built for modern data security challenges.

Vendor Agreement Scrutiny: Understand what data your vendors collect, how they use it, and what privacy protections are in place. Advocate for strong privacy clauses in contracts.

Clear Opt-in/Opt-out Policies: Provide patrons with transparent choices about what data is collected about their usage and how it's used.

Protecting PII at Every Step: Librarians are wonder woman unicorn lasso wrangling data stewards.

Librarian Practices: Data Wrangling & PII Protection

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Data Visualization & Accessibility:

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Takeaways

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Metrics & Metadata

If you take anything away today remember that:

  1. Librarian data practice is not about perfection, it’s about intention.
  2. We are here to protect, not exploit.
  3. To represent, not erase.
  4. To advocate, not surveil.
  5. And that’s a story every librarian can tell with kindness.

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Open Discussion Topics:

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Metrics & Metadata

  1. What ethical dilemmas related to data have you faced in your own library, and how did you navigate them?
  2. How do you currently advocate for your library's value without violating patron trust or privacy?
  3. What tools, templates, or resources (beyond what we've shared today) would help you better collect, analyze, or share library data ethically?
  4. What are your biggest concerns about AI's role in library data practices moving forward?
  5. What opportunities do you see?

Ask questions about your data using an ethical lens.

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Scan the QR Code to View our Zotero EDII Data Storytelling Group Library:

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https://www.zotero.org/groups/6031043/edii_data_storytelling/library