Building a “Library Cube” from Scratch

Introduction Library assessment research in academic libraries has grown over the last several years with a particular emphasis on measuring the effects of library resources on student success (often GPA and retention) to demonstrate value and impact.1 Through assessment departments, often in partnership with institutional researchers, academic libraries can build foundational datasets important for reporting value and impact. At Florida State University (FSU), these efforts within departments and divisions have resulted in silos of data that speak to temporary or singular questions or decisions. However, when brought together, these data might impact broader decisions and gain attention from campus administrators with influence over budgeting and resource allocation. These studies might be momentarily compelling or important for specific divisions but could contribute to telling the larger story about the collective impact of an academic library’s services, spaces, and resources. Building a multidimensional data warehouse could help an institution gather and connect these studies and datasets in one unified database for easy querying and reporting. Translating this concept for use within academic libraries, we will discuss the many steps involved in planning a library cube. Ultimately, this database brings together measures of student demographics, resource usage, and outcomes such as GPA and retention rates. This enables assessment librarians and administrators to make connections between the impact of library services, spaces, and collections on student success in a more cohesive and organized way. Additional environmental factors could include instruction and learning, grades, extracurricular activities, parental educational attainment, use of other campus resources, jobs after graduation, etc. A library cube can help libraries streamline data analysis and reporting integral to engaging with campus decision-makers, which is especially helpful in navigating a higher education landscape that emphasizes performance metrics and demonstrations of value and impact.