Abstract
BackgroundData visualization is a growing topic of discussion and area of educational programming in health sciences libraries. This paper synthesizes information on eight institutions’ experiences in offering Excel-focused data visualization workshops with the goal of providing an overview of the current state of educational offerings in this area.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted by phone and email with librarians at institutions that offer Excel-focused workshops, which were identified by reviewing the websites of Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries members and the 2019 Medical Library Association annual meeting program.ResultsLibrarians from six institutions were interviewed, online class materials from one institution were reviewed, and information from the author’s institution was included, resulting in a total of eight institutions. Educational offerings in Excel-focused data visualization ranged from one workshop to five workshops in a series, which typically first presented information for beginners and then progressed to more advanced data visualization skills. Regarding motivations for offering these workshops, librarians stated that they were committed to providing instruction in software programs that were already familiar to users. Workshop evaluations, when available, were generally positive.DiscussionBecause of its widespread availability and usage, Excel offers a compelling opportunity for providing hands-on data visualization instruction in health sciences libraries.
Highlights
Data visualization is a growing topic of discussion and area of educational programming in health sciences libraries
This paper describes a qualitative case study examining Excel-focused data visualization instruction that is provided in academic health sciences libraries
Criteria for inclusion in the environmental scan were being listed as a member library of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) and being located in the United States or Canada [10]
Summary
Data visualization is a growing topic of discussion and area of educational programming in health sciences libraries. This paper synthesizes information on eight institutions’ experiences in offering Excel-focused data visualization workshops with the goal of providing an overview of the current state of educational offerings in this area. Data visualization is an increasingly common area of service in academic health sciences libraries [1, 2]. While the health sciences library literature includes discussions of instruction in specialized bioinformatics tools [3] and statistical coding tools like R [4, 5], less has been written about instruction in software with lower barriers to entry [6]. Given its ubiquity and familiarity among library users, it provides an opportunity for data visualization and data services instruction with relatively low upfront infrastructure costs and a perceived low barrier to entry. A cottage industry of thought leaders who provide tips and tricks for creating compelling data visualizations in Excel has sprung up [7,8,9], allowing librarians who are interested in providing data visualization services to learn an array of best practices and skills from a robust body of training materials
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