Data-Driven Libraries: Analyzing Incident and Computer Usage Reports with R and Posit

In this hands-on workshop, I will introduce the library staff to a free statistical analysis program called R, which we’ll access through Posit Cloud. Participants will need to preregister and create a free Posit Cloud account in advance so they can follow along with the tutorial. We'll begin by exploring how data analysis can support decision-making in libraries, particularly for staffing and programming. Next, I’ll provide a brief overview of the data-wrangling process I used to match library names, categorize incident types, and create summary statistics. I’ll also share visualizations I created from the Patron Incident Tracking System (PITS) and daily computer usage records. Finally, we’ll dive into a live coding demo where we'll analyze a dataset together. Participants will learn how to read in data, classify variable characteristics for dates correctly, summarize information using tables with counts, analyze statistics, and create an interactive plot.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify opportunities to leverage incident data for actionable insights
• Explore the R programming language in a cloud-based environment for data analysis 
• Develop compelling data visualizations to enhance interpretation and communication of findings

Presenters:

Jung Mee Park, PhD is a Young Adult and Teen Services Librarian with the Pima County Public Library. Previously, she worked as an educator and data analyst at the University of Arizona. As an award-winning sociologist, she was also a postdoctoral fellow in Korean Studies at the University of Southern California. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Cornell University, an MLIS from the University of Arizona, and an MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University. Her research has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, International Area Studies Review, and the Journal of Education in Library and Information Science.