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Joining the Dots: Library Data for Institutional Success
Library customer services staff are at the heart of student experience. Every interaction, question, referral or access challenge holds valuable insight. With institutional focus on student access, retention, attainment and progression this frontline knowledge can contribute to pivotal interventions and actions.
Our conference will explore how customer services teams are using data, observation, and lived experience to inform decision making, design better services and contribute to wider institutional goals and narratives. It’s an opportunity to learn from peers, share what’s worked (or hasn’t), and reflect on the evolving role of customer services in a data-driven library landscape.
To make this another successful conference we want to hear from you. We already have some exciting speakers lined up and are now seeking further contributions.
Topics you might like to consider are:
Data in Practice: What kinds of data are customer services teams collecting? How are you using this information to improve services or feed into wider library or institutional work?
Working Across Systems: How have you made systems work together to give a fuller picture? Are there ways your team’s insights are now linked to analytics or reporting dashboards?
Institutional Influence and Buy-In: How have you made the case for collecting and using customer services data? Have you been able to show the value of this work to senior teams or academic partners? Do you have converged services or CRMs? Do you connect with your strategic planning/data department?
Contributing to Student Success and Retention: Are you identifying points of student struggle and helping shape interventions? How are your team’s insights feeding into retention efforts or support services?
Customer Services in the TEF: How is your work being reflected in institutional TEF submissions or quality reporting? What data or stories are you contributing?
Team-Led Innovation: Have your team made creative changes using data, observations, or feedback. Collaborations across teams to improve services or solve problems? Do you have creative or emerging uses of AI, predictive analytics, or data visualisation in library services to share?
Ethics and Student Trust: How do you manage data collection ethically and with transparency? What conversations are you having about what should (or shouldn’t) be tracked?
Who collects the data: Do you have a data role in your library team? Do you employ graduates to collect or analyse data?
We’d love to hear from you if you are able to answer any of the questions above or have other experiences you feel are relevant and wish to share. We especially welcome new presenters, first-time contributors, and those working in small teams.
If you are interested in speaking, please contact our Events Group Chair Rachel Heastie at: rachel.heastie@rhul.ac.uk by 3 July providing an abstract of your presentation of no more than 200 words.
The conference will take place on Friday 28 November in Birmingham.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Nuala McLaren (on behalf of CSGUK)
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