2017 Charleston Library Conference

As information providers, we are keenly aware of the ins and outs of our markets – aren’t we? We attend conferences, talk one-on-one with colleagues, service providers, publishers, and patrons, consume vast amounts of industry literature, follow influencers on Twitter, participate on listservs, and, and, and. But, in reality, how much do we really KNOW about our industry and customers/patrons, and how much of that knowledge can be applied in a systematic way to tangibly impact our business planning?

While planning is sometimes considered an "art," many of us in scholarly communication know that in order to effectively plan and execute programs and services, we need quite a big dose of science to truly succeed. But do we effectively use analytics on a regular basis to keep our strategies current rather than reformulating only during the strategic planning cycle. Are we working to predict trends using data regularly and in real time? In order to do this, we need data analytics to provide the foundation for the successful business planning.

In this session, we’ll discuss how data analytics should be used to inform business planning in general, and provide specific examples of data usage – especially where data has helped to highlight counter-intuitive trends both in and out of the scholarly information and communication industry.