Love Data Week

These three graphs present the same data, but the first bar graph is more misleading. Look at the Y axis: in the first graph, the Y axis begins at 9300, which makes it looks like the quantities for the letters are very different. In the second bar graph, the Y axis begins at 0, which makes it clear that there is not a substantial difference between the quantities. On the other hand, because the differences are so small, it is difficult to tell which letter is the larger quantity and which is less. The pie chart shows the same data, but represents the numbers as portions of a whole. Similar to the second bar graph, it is difficult to look at the pie chart and tell which letter is the larger quantity at a glance, but because the pie chart is labeled with the precise counts, it is possible to get that information from this visualization.

For more information on various ways in which graphs can present data in a misleading way, visit this Wikipedia page.

Data literacy means a person's ability to read and comprehend the meaning of data and to apply data information to his or her life and/or work and to use it for making a data informed decision.

This guide contains a number of resources that can help you improve your data literacy, including online courses, workshops, and videos, as well as books and journals that are available here at the library. Much of the content on this page comes from Rutgers University's Data Literacy Research Guide by Yingting Zhang. 

To find out how data literate you are, Take this test, which was created by the Data Literacy Project.

• A Culture of Data Literacy (https://qcc.qlik.com/course/view.php?id=723) (40 min) -  This course consists of two video parts of learning modules provided by Qlik on what data literacy is and what data literacy culture is. 

• Healthcare Data Literacy (https://www.coursera.org/learn/healthcare-data-literacy) - This course is offered by University of California at Davis in the Coursera platform. It is part of the Health Information Literacy for Data Analytics Specialization.

• DataCamp (https://www.datacamp.com/) - On this online learning platform there are over two hundreds courses on data science. It offers some free introductory courses and practice; but for premium courses and practice, it will charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee.

• Data Analytics and Visualization in Health Care (https://www.edx.org/course/data-analytics-and-visualization-in-health-care) - This course is on edX learning & education platform (founded by Harvard and MIT). It teaches learners to learn best practices in data analytics, informatics, and visualization to gain literacy in data-driven, strategic imperatives that affect all facets of health care. It is free (no certificate is awarded) and takes 8 weeks with 8 - 10 hours per week.

• Data Management and Visualization (https://www.coursera.org/learn/data-visualization) (17 hours) - This Coursera course is offered by Wesleyan University. In this course, learners will learn to use data analysis tools to manage and visualize data.

• Data Management Short Course for Scientists  (http://commons.esipfed.org/datamanagementshortcourse) - This online course was developed by the ESIP Federation, in cooperation with NOAA and the Data Conservancy. It consists of four sections: the Case for Data Stewardship, Data Management Plans, Local Data Management, and Responsible Data Use. Each section contains several training modules which are all under a CC Attribution 3.0 license. 

• Fundamental of Research Data Management (https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/889213)  - The course was developed and taught by University of Washington Libraries to "introduce to students the concepts and reasons behind data management, to provide some best practices for personal and professional use."

• MANTA (https://mantra.edina.ac.uk/) - This is a free, non-assessed online course offering training on research data management, developed by University of Edinburgh for people responsible for data management in their research projects.  

• Research Data Management for Clinical Research (https://www.coursera.org/learn/clinical-data-management) (25 hours) - This online course was made available in Coursera by Vanderbilt University. This course is intended for audience at beginner level. It covers concepts and practices for "planning, collection, storage, and dissemination of data in clinical research."

• Research Data Management and Sharing (https://www.coursera.org/learn/data-management) (12 hours)- This online course is offered by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Edinburgh in Coursera. It provides the learners with an overview of research data management and sharing. 

• Data Literacy (https://nnlm.gov/data/guides/data-literacy) - This subject primer was developed by National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It has these parts: Data Literacy, Data Literacy Course Materials, Data Literacy Guides & Reference, Data Literacy Research.

• What is Data? What is Data Literacy? (https://www.emich.edu/library/help/tutorials/assets/data_intro/story_html5.html) - This audio/visual tutorial, created by a business librarian in Eastern Michigan University, explains what data is and what data literacy is.

• How to Read a Chart (https://www.emich.edu/library/help/tutorials/assets/read_chart/story_html5.html) - This audio/visual tutorial was also created by the same librarian as above at Eastern Michigan University Library on how to read a chart.

• Data Literacy Project (https://thedataliteracyproject.org/) - This project was launched in October 2018 by global organizations including Qlik, Cognizant, Experian & Pluralsight to build a more data literate society.

• Enhancing Data and Science Literacy (https://datascienceliteracy.rutgers.edu/opportunities/core-programs/data-literacy-series/) - Rutgers Dataspire team provided several workshop materials used in Data Literacy Workshop Series.

• ACRL Roadshows, Research Data Management  (http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/roadshows/rdmroadshow) - ARCL offers a variety of traveling workshops. One of them is on research data management entitled Building your Research Data Management Toolkit: Integrating RDM into Your Liaison Work, conducted by two expert presenters.

• 4T Virtual Conferences on Data Literacy (http://datalit.sites.uofmhosting.net/conference/) - In this 3-year project, University of Michigan developed data and statistical literacy skills. This site contains links to the archived webinars in 2018, 2017 and 2016.

• All About You, Up for Sale: How Data Brokers like Cambridge Analytica Construct Consumer Identities (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RBiwXBNOzI) (59:57) - This webinar addressed how the data we share determines how we are marketed to when it comes to data sharing.

• Data Literacy Whiteboard 001 - Four Data Scale Types (https://youtu.be/flrjehRe4Ck) (7:28)- Learn about Nominal, Ordinal, Interval & Ratio measurement scales. Understand the value of these scales, and also the danger of applying this typology in a rigid way.

• Data Literacy Webinar 001 - 17 Key Traits of Data Literacy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_e1uFSWUM) (1:03:23) - This YouTube session provides a review of the 17 key traits of data literacy by RJ Andrews, author of Info We Trust: How to Inspire the World with Data.

• Data Literacy Webinar 002 - The WISDOM Data-Working Framework (https://youtu.be/CZ7x3cvK7DM) (1:03:24) - This session covers the W-I-S-D-O-M Data-Working Flow.

• Data Literacy Webinar 003 - Finding & Gathering Relevant Data (https://youtu.be/6jC56JUsf9k) (57:39) - The webinar discusses practical ways to find, gather and even create data.

• Data literacy | Skills of critical thinkers (https://youtu.be/jJHkKPShqZs) (55:27) - "Data literacy is not just about consuming and understanding data visualizations but more importantly about applying the genuinely human traits of curiosity and critical thinking to your data."

• Data Literacy - Full eMeeting Recording (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2uQ1y4v-W8) (1:02:41) - This recording is on agricultural data literacy. This webinar featured experts at five universities on the six pillars of data literacy and how they can be applied in operation. The eMeeting was held on August 3rd, 2018.

• Data Literacy : Definition, Importance and scope (https://youtu.be/jMhrSeOuzrE) (29:14) - This session on data literacy was conducted by a professor from Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

• Visualization Culture: Data Literacy for the Rest of Us (https://youtu.be/FLplrI6Hpak) (1:09:02) - This Google Talk was presented by computational designer Fernanda Viégas at the Boston Chapter Meeting of the Society of Women Engineers. The speaker reports on recent research into public data analysis and visualization.

• Learning Data Science at the Library: Lesson Plans on Data Literacy Skills (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuUH6rhjLpo) (39:25) - This webinar describes the elements of a lesson plan focused on data literacy.

• Tips and Tricks for Learning Data Visualization (https://youtu.be/Ie9UBZbbzZM) (59:45) - webinar series presented by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Pacific Northwest Region. To obtain MLA CE credit, after viewing this recording, take the evaluation at https://nnlm.gov/ZJc.

• Webinar: Fostering Student Success through Administrator Data Literacy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prk-v2kIPxk) (53:52) - Published by Data Quality Campaign discuss. The webinar discusses what it really means to be data-literate in practice, what leading states are doing to support administrator data literacy.