Data Literacy Workshops in the Library: Training Students as the Next Generation of Data Wizards

Undergraduate students increasingly need data skills to succeed in future education and careers. Universities have the responsibility and mission to equip students for future success. Data librarians are well situated to support this mission by training and preparing students to work with data. However, data librarians face limitations in time, resources, and attention. This presentation will discuss how the data team at one academic library addressed these challenges by piloting a student-run data workshop series. The pilot series was designed to improve students career readiness, by including a digital badging system that allows students to demonstrate their skills to future employers. The presentation will cover assessing the demand for data skills among students, hiring and mentoring experienced students to teach data software (e.g., OpenRefine, R, and Tableau for the specific workshops in the pilot), and logistics of advertising and conducting the workshops. The presentation will also include methods for evaluating the pilot workshops, initial findings, and future plans to extend the data workshops as a permanent program. Attendees will come away with actionable ideas for including and mentoring students in data literacy training initiatives, for marketing data services to students, and for helping students articulate their skills.