Data storytelling
for librarians
centering ethics, protection and transparency
Rebekah Silverstein
Elizabeth Szkirpan
06-20-2025
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HELLO
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Ethics
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Reporting
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Policy
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Storytelling
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Takeaways __ Q&A
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Metrics & Metadata
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Misuse & Pitfalls
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Hello we're glad you're here!
06-20-2025
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HELLO
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Takeaways __ Q&A
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Metrics & Metadata
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Full name
Book Club Host
Rebekah Silverstein
Elizabeth Szkirpan
Ethics
Librarian Practices
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Ethics
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Policy
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Storytelling
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Takeaways___Q&A
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Metrics & Metadata
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Misuse & Pitfalls
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DEII Protection
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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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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 |
Policy
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Reporting
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.
Storytelling
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Reporting
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
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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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Misuse & Pitfalls
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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Misuse & Pitfalls
Takeaways
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Ethics
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If you take anything away today remember that:
Open Discussion Topics:
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Ask questions about your data using an ethical lens.
Scan the QR Code to View our Zotero EDII Data Storytelling Group Library:
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Ethics
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https://www.zotero.org/groups/6031043/edii_data_storytelling/library