Book Review: Library Analytics and Metrics: Using Data to Drive to Drive Decisions and Services

Abstract

Libraries have long been consumers of data, relying on it to inform services and collection management decisions, a fact acknowledged by the authors. The shift has come, Editor Ben Showers says in his introduction, with an “analytics turn,” or a renewed interest in the questions we ask and the data they yield. This new focus on collecting data and analyzing it with purpose is where the authors see the future of library analytics. With libraries and cultural institutions increasingly being asked to prove their value in the digital information environment or being asked to do more with the same or less, analytics and metrics can play a role both in showing value and in helping libraries make data-driven decisions with precious time and resources while meeting users’ needs and expectations.