Events and Recordings

Networking Opportunities

Data in Libraries Networking Group

Check back soon for more information.

Data Networking in School Libraries Group

The Data Networking in School Libraries Group is a place to share ideas on the access and application of data in school library settings. This group is open to any school library staff member working in a school library in Illinois.

You're invited to join us for our next meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. This session will center around the School Library Advocacy Through Education (SLATE) project and the use of data for advocacy, and RAILS Data Research Specialist Janette Derucki will present a demonstration and overview of the forthcoming SLATE data dashboard tool. There will also be time for members to ask questions and discuss other data-related topics. We look forward to seeing you there! Register here.

RAILS Continuing Education Archives Recordings

RAILS Sparks Podcasts and Online Roundtable Sessions

  • Episode 29: Lauren Rosenthal - RAILS Executive Director Deirdre Brennan talks with Library Director Lauren Rosenthal, then from Fox River Valley Public Library District (now Ela Area Public Library), about the importance of data in library advocacy and telling a compelling library story. Lauren gives great, specific examples about how she used data to achieve library goals.
  • Episode 39: Grant Halter - RAILS Executive Director Deirdre Brennan talks with RAILS Data Analysis Manager Grant Halter about how he defines data, demonstrating the library's value through data, the difference between useful and interesting data, using your strategic plan to develop a survey and gather data, and much more!
  • RAILS Online Roundtable: Library Data for Advocacy - A discussion of how libraries collect and utilize data. This event relates to the My Library Is... campaign. This event included a short presentation by Amy Stefanski, District Librarian, Dunlap CUSD #323.
  • RAILS Online Roundtable: Using Data in Libraries - A discussion of how libraries can implement the data analysis process in strategic planning and everyday decision making. This event included a short presentation by Grant Halter, RAILS Data Analyst.
  • RAILS Online Roundtable: Go-To Data Resources - Grant Halter, RAILS Data Analysis Manager, will discuss how libraries can use publicly-available data sets like maps and the IPLAR in their own work. This conversation will be for staff from any public library who wants to integrate more data tools into their work.

Other Podcast Episodes

  • Big Data Revolution - Once invisible details of our lives can now be tracked and turned into data. Will this make life easier or more complicated? This hour, TED speakers imagine how Big Data will reshape our world.
  • Can We Trust the Numbers - Data, statistics and algorithms dominate every aspect of our lives. But how accurate are they, and how fair? This hour, TED speakers explore the ups and downs of relying too much on the numbers.
  • Circulating Ideas 159: Becky Yoose - Steve chats with Becky Yoose, founder and Library Data Privacy Consultant for LDH Consulting Services, about how libraries do (and don’t) keep data private and secure and why they should.
  • Circulating Ideas 178: Tim Cherubini - Steve chats with Timothy Cherubini, Executive Director of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies and coordinator of Measures That Matter, about his path to librarianship, the Public Library Data Alliance, and why collecting accurate data about public libraries is important.

More Related Events