Data Literacy Leadership Preparation for School Librarians

Abstract

This paper presents findings and shares the experiences of the Preparing Librarians for Data Literacy Leadership Project (DataLeadPrep) initiative project team from the University of North Texas (UNT) and Texas Woman’s University (TWU) to develop and scale a competency development program in data literacy leadership for pre-service school librarians and as a continuing education program. Findings from three stages of data collection suggest that stakeholders in both school and public library settings recognize the imperative for data-informed decision-making but attribute competency to experience on the job rather than to professional preparation programs, that the range of competencies perceived as necessary by stakeholders would be a challenge to develop within professional preparation programs as currently structured, and that a personalized learning approach would be most effective in implementing a data literacy leadership curriculum within a library professional preparation program.