Introduction

This book is the result of work that was done in July 2023 for the second data workshop sponsored by the PALS Department at Minnesota State. The workshop was designed in response to feedback from the participants in our first workshop Data Literacy Intensive for Librarians. They made it clear that while they felt more confident in their data skills, they were missing the “magic” required for telling a good story using that data. And that makes sense. Of course, it is not magic even if it feels that way. It is a different skill set to develop. Working with data requires us to slow down, look at the data in multiple ways, map out what it is telling us, and then produce a compelling narrative that speaks to our multitude of audiences. It is hard work that is necessary if we are to help people understand the library’s place and value in the parent organization. None of us are paid spokespeople for author Brent Dykes, but the leaders and participants in this workshop all agree that his book, Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals, served as an effective backbone to develop these new skills and will serve as a reference for future projects.

As with our previous book, you will find perspectives from librarians at a variety of library types, content that helped them work through new concepts, and presentations of their data work. If you have not been able to identify a starting point for your own data visualizations and storytelling, I hope that this helps get you there.

Johnna S. Horton
Executive Director of PALS