Unleashing The Power (BI) Of Data
VALA2022 E-Poster
Michelle Morgan
- Library Resources Analyst
- Swinburne University of Technology
Anna Rubinowski
- Datasets Librarian
- Swinburne University of Technology
Michelle Lesley Allen
- Acquisitions Coordinator
- Swinburne University of Technology
Please tag your comments, tweets, and blog posts about this session: #vala2022
Abstract
In these difficult times, there is a critical need for evidence-based decision-making and to communicate the value of the library to internal and external stakeholders. In order to address this need we were looking for a means to be able to collate our data easily, interrogate it meaningfully, and communicate it effectively. After investigating Google Data Studio, MS PowerBI, and Tableau we decided to use MS PowerBI (Swinburne having a license for MS PowerBI also helped seal the deal).
PowerBI has proven to be a powerful tool but, unlike other power tools, which are often single function like a drill or a sander, Power BI is more akin to a Swiss Army knife or Leatherman as we discovered multiple functions along the way.
In our poster we want to showcase some of the areas where we used PowerBI with great success but also identify some areas requiring further development.
- Library Services Dashboard – a one-stop shop for a high-level overview of critical information about the use of physical and digital spaces and services to facilitate quick decisions around library closures and the services offered and to communicate value to the greater university community.
- Library Budget Dashboard – a detailed dashboard collating expenditure data and forecasting of expenditure in foreign currencies based on past trends broken down by CAPEX and OPEX.
- Resource usage – our favourite thing about PowerBI is the ability to “unpivot” COUNTER report data. COUNTER report data is grouped by title and month but PowerBI allows you to transform the data into a flat table such that you can group by different criteria (like subject area, YoP or OA) or combine multiple years and map trends.
- Vendor dashboards – detailed overview of resource usage, cost (historical expenditure and cost per use analyses), licence terms and access conditions to demonstrate ROI when evaluating big deals and reviewing subscription renewals, using templates of consistent measures allowing us to produce timely and efficient reporting by simply plugging in the relevant expenditure, licence, and usage data.
- Trend analyses – benchmarking of usage across vendors by resource type.
- Pain points – sharp learning curve; access to published reports and dashboards is limited to users with PowerBI licences due to IT policy about publishing publicly; date data in PowerBI can be quite fussy and sometimes requires thinking outside the box; PowerBI loves tables but hates name changes; and setting up the right connection to your data source can require some thinking, finessing, and resourcing that we do not have at the moment.
- Future goals and dreams – APIs for automated harvesting of usage and financial data.
Biography
Michelle Morgan qualified as a Librarian in 2007 and initially worked in the public library sector. In 2009 she started working at the University of Western Australia in the Information Resources & Access Management department, and, in 2010, she was appointed in the newly created Ebook Librarian role (in addition to roles in budget, institutional repository, and electronic holdings) . In 2014, after 5 years at UWA, Michelle crossed to the vendor side and also moved across to the opposite side of the country to work first with ProQuest and then Innovative Interfaces (III). At the end of 2017 an interesting opportunity arose at Swinburne University of Technology and Michelle secured the new Library Resources Analyst position. In this role Michelle seeks to wrangle and present data in meaningful ways to assist in decision making and to help the library showcase the resources and services they provide.
Michelle doesn’t mind a craft beer.
Anna Rubinowski joined Swinburne University of Technology as Datasets Librarian in 2020 where she manages the evaluation, selection, acquisition, and renewal of the Library’s online resources. She completed her Master of Information Management at RMIT in 2014 and worked previously at Monash University in the role of the Ada Booth Librarian and Collection Librarian. She is the CAUL Content Coordinator for Swinburne University of Technology and is currently one of two CAUL Content Coordinator Representatives on the CAUL Content Procurement Committee. Anna has a keen interest in data analysis and practical evidence on return of investment, and how data visualisation can support demonstrating the value of Library collections and services.
Michelle Allen completed her Bachelor of Information Management at Charles Sturt University in 2015 and works at Swinburne University of Technology Library in the Datasets 
Acquisitions Team. Mish is passionate about access to quality information and excited about the ways in which technology can support research, learning and teaching. Her role revolves around coordinating journal subscriptions, processing annual renewals, initiating new orders, liaising with vendors and the agent, invoicing, and troubleshooting online access. More recently, Mish has been learning new skills in statistics collection, analysis and visualisation. Previous areas Mish has been a part of include Swinburne’s Aleph and Alma implementation projects, repository service including ERA requirements, copyright service, print serials collection management and loans customer service. Mish’s interests include music performance and she was an original member of Swinburne Library Ukelele Group. Recognition: Winner – ALIA Student Award 2015; Winner – Institute for Information Management Prize 2015; Nominee – Zenith Undergraduate Information Studies Prize.
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