School of Information Sciences

Hinchliffe Awarded IMLS Grant to Develop Training on Privacy in Library Learning Analytics

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Affiliate Professor

Affiliate Professor Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, professor and coordinator for information literacy services and instruction in the University Library, in collaboration with Kyle Jones, assistant professor in the School of Informatics and Computing at the Indiana University-Indianapolis (IUPUI), has been awarded a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for Prioritizing Privacy: Training to Improve Practice in Library Analytics Projects.

This three-year grant for $249,198 will support the development of a continuing education program to train academic library practitioners to comprehensively address privacy and related ethical considerations in learning analytics projects.  The training will be developed by Hinchliffe and Jones working with a team of content experts and guided by the input of an expert advisory board.

As a result of participating in the Prioritizing Privacy training, academic library practitioners will be better prepared to consider the privacy implications of library analytics projects and to improve the design of such projects in order to strengthen student privacy protections. Participants will have expanded knowledge of the interplay and tensions among learning analytics and library values as well as improved ability to navigate these considerations.

In addition to providing opportunities for face-to-face or online training for up to 400 participants, the grant team will develop an open educational resource packet consisting of the training curriculum, guidelines for facilitating the training, and recommendations for incorporating the materials into other training programs and library science courses.

Hinchliffe explained that, given the nature of learning analytics projects, the potential impact of this project is tremendous: "Librarians tend to work with campus partners on learning analytics projects and such projects may involve data from thousands of students. If, for example, if each participant in the training conducts a learning analytics project with 2,500 students, the Prioritizing Privacy training will impact the privacy protections offered to 1 million students."

Jones continued on stating, "I'm thrilled to be working with our collaborators on this important program. Providing the time and structure to reflect on the library profession's values while pursuing learning analytics will empower librarians to be ethical leaders throughout higher education."

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Chan to give an invited talk on "Predatory Data"

Professor Anita Say Chan will give an invited lecture at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on October 23. The talk, part of the "Confronted with America" series hosted by the Center for American Studies and Research, will be moderated by Jihad Touma, founding director of AUB's School of Computing and Data Sciences.

Anita Say Chan

Olalere receives HSLI Jira Scholarship

Precious Olalere, a doctoral student in information sciences, has been awarded the 2025 Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship from the Health Science Librarians of Illinois (HSLI). This award supports individuals pursuing education in library or information science in Illinois, especially those focusing on health science librarianship.

Precious Olalere

iSchool researchers present at ILA 2025

School faculty, staff, and students will present their research at the 2025 Illinois Library Association (ILA) Annual Conference, which will be held on October 14–16 in Rosemont. The theme of this year's conference is "You Belong Here."

Craig named Illinois Library Luminary

Anne Craig, iSchool adjunct lecturer and senior director of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), has been inducted as an Illinois Library Luminary. The Illinois Library Luminary program, an initiative of the Illinois Library Association (ILA), recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries.

Anne Craig

iSchool researchers present at CSCW 2025

Several faculty, students, and recent grads will present their research at the 28th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2025), which will be held October 18–22 in Bergen, Norway. The online portion of the conference will be held on October 10. 

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Fax: (217) 244-3302

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top