Beyond the Job Title: Data Analyst

A library tech job interview with Sephra Byrne

Posted on August 26, 2024 in Job Profiles

Authors:

Sephra Byrne
A librarian looking into a data analyst job

Core to LibTech Insights‘s mission is demystifying the broad and dynamic field of tech librarianship in higher ed. In this series, we interview a librarian every month to learn a little more about their position. As library tech jobs proliferate, they sometimes come with unfamiliar, jargony, or intimidating titles. We want to go beyond the title and look at the responsibilities, skills, and joys that make up the job. We hope this series will increase your knowledge of library tech jobs and skills out there and offer you greater insight into the working lives of your colleagues.

For this installment, we spoke to Sephra Byrne at the University of North Texas to learn more about her job as a Data Analyst. Check out our archive of job profiles. 💫

What is your job title and responsibilities?

Analysis and Reporting:

  • Plans, develops and documents data analyses to identify collection gaps, evaluate current or potential resources, or address specific questions from the collection development department.

  • Develops reports, including charts, tables and graphs, that address the purposes of the analyses. These reports will include description of the problem(s) being addressed, the methods of the analysis, the results, and recommendations based on the information provided. The reports will use levels of technical detail appropriate for the audience and purpose.

  • Develops and maintains interfaces to the data that enable others in the library and external stakeholders to interact with the data to address their own information needs.

Data Management:

  • Ensures the regular collection of data into the Collection Data Repository using standardized extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) methods. This usually involves training and overseeing the work of the Collections Graduate Services Assistant (GSA), but could include doing the ETL work, if necessary.

  • Creates and/or applies methods to collect data from various sources using semi-automated methods and ensures the data is correctly uploaded into the central repository or relational database system.

  • Manages relational databases (Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL, etc.) to maintain data quality, modifying database structures, creating new databases as needed, and documenting procedures.

Communication and Management:

  • Manages selected data management or analytical projects, as requested by supervisor.

  • Communicates with Department Head, department staff and direct customers regarding projects.

  • Documents programs, workflows and procedures for managing data.

Professionalism:

  • Participates in committee, either library or university, as elected or appointed.

  • Attends staff development and training sessions related to job performance, such as University or Libraries sponsored meetings, as directed by supervisor.

  • Cultivates skills in computer programming, database maintenance and analysis staying abreast of software upgrades, new tools and methods of analysis.

Can you describe your career trajectory leading up to this position?

I earned my B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Iowa in 2014. I then joined Peace Corps Tanzania and had the wonderful opportunity to teach mathematics on the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro for two years and spent another year helping to develop the educational program for a residential primary and secondary education program for Maasai girls in Karatu.

After returning to the US, I moved to Denton, Texas, and earned my M.S. in Library Science from the University of North Texas (UNT). I started working at UNT Libraries in the Music Library as a student assistant doing rapid cataloging on their backlog of donated records. I then moved into a Graduate Student Assistant position in the Collection Assessment Department and started as a full-time data analyst in June 2022. I am currently working on my PhD in Information Science, specializing in mathematically modelling library resource usage.

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Can you give some examples of the projects you’ve worked on in this position? 

  • I run an in-person pop-up survey 8–10 times a year to collect general feedback from students and faculty as well as answers to longitudinal questions about the collection and questions that change yearly to support that year’s projects.

  • I’m currently working on some of the less glamorous parts of database management, like standardizing columns and adding documentation.

  • I put together our usage reporting for national surveys like ACRL, IPEDS, and ARL.

  • I work as part of a team to do targeted collection evaluations. Last year we looked at computer science and computer engineering as well as languages and literature. I also work with the team on ad hoc analyses. For example, two years ago. two of my colleagues and I got an internal grant to look at the diversity and inclusiveness of our comics, graphic novels, and manga collection.

  • I work on improving and automating our data gathering pipelines for our 11 active databases to help save time and increase the validity of the collected data, including ILL, circulation, holdings, institutional, industry quality lists, and usage data. Our biggest database is our usage database, and we currently collect usage data from about 180 platforms using Python for both SUSHI and manually downloaded COUNTER reports and data entry for platforms that don’t offer reports that adhere to the COUNTER standard. I oversee this thrice annual process and maintain the Python and SQL infrastructure.

What are some exciting developments in the field of data analysis that will benefit libraries?

I think that there is a lot of potential with data analysis to learn more about both library users and non-users and to help tailor our services to their current needs, especially as data gets easier to collect and store and we can forge better connections between our datasets. We have automated much of our usage data collection, particularly as more library vendors have adopted the COUNTER standard and implemented SUSHI API access. I am also fortunate to work at a university that values sharing data between departments, so we are able to easily access admissions, enrollment, and student engagement data, and we have been working on scraping citations and syllabi. Overall, I think that the most exciting and important developments are simply the availability, accessibility, and connectivity of institutional, bibliographic, and usage data.

What is your favorite part of your job?

I love to explore new ideas and ways of doing things, and I am fortunate to have a supervisor and administration who are very supportive. They create an environment that fosters curiosity, encourages taking strategic risks, and provides opportunities for professional development. This has allowed me to take on projects that have greatly improved the efficiency of our department and to take on more challenging tasks and interesting analyses.

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