title: The data life cycle applied to our own data.
abstract: Increased demand for data-driven decision making is driving the need for librarians to be facile with the data life cycle. This case study follows the migration of reference desk statistics from handwritten to digital format. This shift presented two opportunities: first, the availability of a nonsensitive data set to improve the librarians' understanding of data-management and statistical analysis skills, and second, the use of analytics to directly inform staffing decisions and departmental strategic goals. By working through each step of the data life cycle, library faculty explored data gathering, storage, sharing, and analysis questions.
authors.affiliation: agoben@uic .edu , Assistant Information Services Librarian and Assistant Professor; raszewr1@uic.edu , Assistant Information Services Librarian and Associate Professor; Library of the Health Sciences-Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1750 West Polk Street, Chicago, IL 60612.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goben
authors.affiliation: agoben@uic .edu , Assistant Information Services Librarian and Assistant Professor; raszewr1@uic.edu , Assistant Information Services Librarian and Associate Professor; Library of the Health Sciences-Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1750 West Polk Street, Chicago, IL 60612.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raszewski
mesh_terms: D002641:Chicago; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016245:Librarians; D007993:Libraries, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007999:Library Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D024382:Professional Role; D014584:User-Computer Interface