Wenli Gao

Wenli Gao, data services librarian at University of Houston Libraries, with Lindita Camaj, PhD, associate professor in journalism and mass communication at the UH Valenti School of Communication, recently completed a site for data journalism after receiving a grant from the  American Library Association (ALA).

Storytelling with Data: A Resource Guide for Data Journalism serves as a centralized source for information on the basics of data journalism. Students and practitioners of journalism can use this resource to get started with data journalism or to sharpen their knowledge thereof. Faculty who want to create a course in data journalism will also find instructional materials here. Additionally, the online guide offers resources on locating, analyzing, and visualizing data for those in other disciplines.

In her role as data services librarian, Gao provides support for UH faculty and students who are working with data, including finding data within the Libraries’ hundreds of databases and open data. Gao also provides instruction on methodologies and tools relating to geographic information systems (GIS), analysis, and visualization of data. “My goals include empowering faculty and students in finding and using data, increasing data literacy skills, and working with faculty to embed data literacy into courses and assignments,” she said.

Faculty and students: register for research workshops taught by Wenli Gao in October and November

According to an Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) white paper, research data services (RDS) are burgeoning across academic and research libraries. One of UH Libraries’ strategic goals is to expand services and programs pertaining to research productivity on campus. A number of efforts in this area include working with faculty and researchers to gain access to data, and providing data-focused instruction, reference, and consultation services to the campus community.