Fostering Workforce Readiness: Librarians and Data Literacy Education

Given the rapid growth of data creation, increasing automation and AI, and expanding daily interactions with data, our collective need to become more data literate is vital. While discussions around data literacy in the workforce focus on its critical role in revenue and competitive advantage for companies, it is equally vital for the professional success of students and alumni. The value of data literacy skills extends beyond performing job tasks, impacting various facets of individuals’ professional lives, including job satisfaction, salary, retention, mental well-being, and job placement. However, both companies and employees, and subsequently our students, face challenges in navigating pathways to data literacy. The increasing demand for improving data literacy aligns well with the core values of librarianship, which emphasize lifelong learning and the empowerment of individuals to work effectively with information and data. Librarians in academic settings have a distinct role in teaching data literacy by collaborating with teaching faculty, campus administration, and industry professionals to equip undergraduates with essential data literacy skills before graduation.

In this presentation, we will share our seven proposed business data literacy competencies, demonstrate their alignment with the ACRL Framework, and present findings from a research survey exploring the relationship between data literacy competencies taught in the classroom and professional workplace practices. These findings illustrate how the proposed business data literacy competencies move from the undergraduate classroom into the workplace and provide additional context for integrating data literacy instruction alongside information literacy. This presentation will help the audience appreciate ways in which improved data literacy contributes to success in the workplace and strengthens our workforce's capabilities.