Category Archives: news

Reflections on Huddersfield’s data

Following on from De Montford’s blog post about the nature of their data submission, we’ve been thinking a bit more about what we could have included (and indeed what we might look at when we finish this project).

We’ve already been thinking about how we could incorporate well established surveys into data consideration (both our own internal data collection, such as our library satisfaction survey, and external surveys).  While our biggest concern is getting enough data to draw conclusions, qualitative data is naturally a problematic area: numerical data ‘just’ needs obtaining and clearing for use, but getting some information from students to find out why they do or don’t use resources and the library can be quite complicated.  Using other surveys outside of the project focus groups could be a way of gathering simple yet informative data to indicate trends and personal preferences.  Additionally, if certain groups of students choose to use the library a little or a lot, existing surveys may give us feedback on why on a basic level.

We also may want to ask (and admittedly I’m biased here given my research background!) what makes students choose the library for studying and just how productive they are when they get here.  Footfall has already clearly demonstrated in the original project that library entries do not necessarily equate to degree results.  Our library spaces have been designed for a variety of uses, for social learning, group study, individual study, specialist subject areas.  However, that doesn’t mean they are used for those purposes.  Footfall can mean checking email and logging on to Facebook (which of course then links back to computer log in data and how that doesn’t necessarily reflect studying), but it can also mean intensive group preparation e.g. law students working on a moot (perhaps without using computers or resources other than hard copy reference editions of law reports).

If we want to take the data even further, we could take it deeper into borrowing in terms of specific collection usage too.  Other research (De Jager, K (2002) has found significant correlations between specific hard copy collections (in De Jager’s case, examples include reference materials and short loan items) and attainment, with similar varying relationships between resource use and academic achievement across different subjects.  If we were to break down collection type in our borrowing analysis (particularly where there may be special collections of materials or large numbers of shorter loan periods), would we find anything that would link up to electronic resource use as a comparison?  We could also consider incorporating reading lists into the data to check whether recommended texts are used heavily in high attainment groups…

De Jager, K. (2002), “Successful students: does the library make a difference?” Performance Measurement and Metrics 3 (3), p.140-144

Good news everybody…

We are very pleased to report that we have now received all of the data from our partner organisations and have processed all but two already!

Early results are looking positive and our next step is to report back with a brief analysis to each institution. We are planning to give them our data and a general set of data so that they can compare and contrast. There have been some issues with the data, some of which has been described in previous blogs, however, we are confident we have enough to prove the hypothesis one way or another!

In our final project meeting in July we hope to make a decision on what form the data will take when released under an Open Data Commons Licence. If all the partners agree, we will release the data individually; otherwise we will release the general set for other to analyse further.

Data analysis update

Whilst we wait for all of the data from the project partners to arrive, Bryony and I have done a quick & dirty analysis of the data we’ve received so far.

The good news (touch wood!) is that we’re still on track to prove the project hypothesis:

“There is a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment”

The data we’ve looked at so far has a small Pearson correlation (in the region of -0.2) that has a high statistical significance (with a p-value of below 0.01).

The reason we’re seeing a negative correlation is due to the values we’ve assigned to the degree results (1=first, 2=upper second, 3=lower second, 4=third, etc).

We suspect one of the reasons for the small Pearson correlation is the level of non & low usage (which is something we’ve looked at previously in Huddersfield’s data). Within each degree level, there are sizeable minorities of students who either never made use of a library service (e.g. they never borrowed any books) or who only made low use (e.g. they borrowed less than 5 books), and it’s this which seems partly responsible for lowering the Pearson correlation. However, the data shows that:

  • students who gained a first are less likely to be in that set of non & low users than those who gained a lower grade
  • students who gained the highest grades are more likely to be in the set of high library usage than those who gained lower grades

5 years of book loans and grades at Huddersfield

I’m just starting to pull our data out for the JISC Library Impact Data Project and I thought it might be interesting to look at 5 years of grades and book loans. Unfortunately, our e-resource usage data and our library visits data only goes back as far as 2005, but our book loan data goes back to the mid 1990s, so we can look at a full 3 years of loans for each graduating students.

The following graph shows the average number of books borrowed by undergrad students who graduated with an specific honour (1, 2:1, 2:2 or 3) in that particular academic year…

books

…and, to try and tease out any trends, here’s a line graph version….

books2

Just a couple of general comments:

  • the usage & grade correlation (see original blog post) for books seems to be fairly consistent over the last 5 years, although there is a widening between usage by the lowest & highest grades
  • the usage by 2:2 and 3 students seems to be in gradual decline, whilst usage by those who gain the highest grade (1) seems to on the increase

Our first project team meeting

On Friday the 11 March, all 8 project partners met for the first time. In a packed agenda we discussed the project in detail – we’ll be blogging the minutes soon.

We also approved the project plan and discussed the hypothesis in some detail – look out for our first blog on that soon too! We are now working on getting the focus group questions out to everyone in the next few days.

The meeting went well, and it was good to meet up face to face before we really get started on gathering the data, we started under a pile of biscuits and ended with a civilised drink in the Head of Steam at Huddersfield railway station before the long journey home for some.

Welcome!

This is the blog for the Library Impact Data Project, which is part of the JISC Activity Data programme. The project will run from 1 February 2011 – 31 July 2011.

In addition we’ll be tweeting using the #lidp hashtag and will be archiving it at: http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/lidp

Summary

This project aims to prove a statistically significant correlation between library usage and student attainment.  Using activity data from three separate systems and matching these against student records which are held in a fourth system, this project will build on in-house research previously undertaken at the University of Huddersfield.  By identifying subject areas or courses which exhibit low usage of library resources, service improvements can be targeted.  Those subject areas or courses which exhibit high usage of library resources can be used as models of good practice.

The partner Universities represent a cross-section of size and mission and will provide a rich data set on which to work.

Hypothesis

There is a statistically significant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment

Project Partners

  • University of Huddersfield
  • University of Bradford
  • De Montfort University
  • University of Exeter
  • University of Lincoln
  • Liverpool John Moores University
  • University of Salford
  • Teesside University
  •