The project will engage data experts from diverse backgrounds and industries to share their perspectives on data quality issues and data evaluation. Based on the forum, the project will create an open-access ebook (edited collection), and infographic guides of a synthesized data evaluation strategy. 

This project will help raise academic librarians’ awareness of data quality problems, fill our knowledge gaps, and build our capacity and confidence in teaching data evaluation, critical thinking about data, and data literacy. As a long-term impact, the project will demonstrate the library’s impact on cultivating data-literate citizens, improving the quality and integrity of scholarly output, reducing the social and economic costs caused by data quality issues, and improving the quality of data-driven decision-making.

Detailed proposals are available at https://www.imls.gov/grants/awarded/re-252357-ols-22

• What is the specific context that the data quality problems occur?

• What is the typical object of quantitative data products to be evaluated (data points, datasheets, datasets, database, a combination, or other?)

• What are the data quality problems encountered by the speakers?

• What are specific case studies or examples to demonstrate the problems?

• In the instances of data creation, what steps/procedures/approaches/strategies are used/can be used to control data quality?

• In the instances of using secondary data, what steps/procedures/approaches/strategies are used/can be used to evaluate data quality?

• What cognitive and critical thinking skills do researchers need to develop for data evaluation?

• What affective skills and mental habits do researchers need to develop for data evaluation?

• How Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) issues are considered in research design, data collection, and data evaluation?

• How to potentially solve the data quality problems identified through evaluation?

• How to teach students and researchers critical data evaluation skills?

• What data quality evaluation knowledge and competencies do college students need to develop to get career-ready?

• What can librarians do to help students and researchers develop data evaluation skills?

• How do data literacy, information literacy, and critical thinking correlate, and how the responsibilities can be shared among librarians and educators to cultivate data-literate citizens?

Ms. Grace Liu (Principal Investigator), Assistant Professor, Business Librarian at West Chester University. 

Ms. Rashelle Nagar (Co-PI), Business Research & Collections Librarian at Stanford University. 

Mr. Bobray Bordelon (Collaborative Consultant), Economics & Finance Librarian/Data Services Librarian at Princeton University. 

Ms. Marydee Ojala (Collaborative Consultant), Editor-in-chief of Online Searcher, formerly with BankAmerica Corp. Research Library & Information Center. 

Dr. Jodi Schneider (Project Advisor), Associate Professor at the School of Information Sciences, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Ms. Jordan Sarti (Graduate Assistant), School of Information Sciences, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ms. Uyen Nguyen (Graduate Assistant), School of Information Sciences, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign