Understanding the Enumerated World: Making Sense of Data as an Information Source

Authors

Kristi Thompson, Western UniversityFollow
Elizabeth Hill, Western UniversityFollow
Alexandra Cooper, Queen's University - Kingston, OntarioFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Chapter in ACRL publication The Data Literacy Cookbook.

This recipe is a guide to preparing an instructional session aimed at postsecondary students in the social or health sciences or related disciplines on locating, evaluating, and using secondary data sources as information resources. Who collects data? Where can you access them? Why are data available on some topics and not others? Why are some statistics available at a detailed level of geography and others only nationally? What are some key limitations of official statistics, and where can information be found to fill in the gaps? This recipe uses these questions to encourage students to consider how data are used as information sources

Notes

The Data Literacy Cookbook

Edited by Kelly Getz Meryl Brodsky

ISBN: 978-0-8389-3925-3

Available: https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/data-literacy-cookbook

Citation of this paper:

Cooper, Alexandra, Hill, Elizabeth, and Thompson, Kristi. (2022). "Understanding the Enumerated World: Making Sense of Data as an Information Source". In Getz, K and Brodsky, M, (Eds.), The Data Literacy Cookbook. Association of College and Research Libraries.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.