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Universities and colleges have a rich seam of data, created as students, researchers and staff interact with the systems and services across their campuses. The potential for this data to transform the student and researcher experience, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the institution, is currently locked away in the diverse and complex data sets and systems employed by each institution. Even where these data sets are available, making sense of them can be difficult and resource intensive. This article describes the efforts of the Library Analytics and Metrics Project (LAMP) to develop a shared, national service to enable institutions and libraries to make sense of their disparate and diverse data sets and enable them to spend their precious time and resources acting upon it to improve the student and researcher experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data usually lies hidden beneath the myriad systems which it powers; like electricity it is only visible through the things it makes possible. Yet, data has the potential to transform the services and systems that institutions rely on to deliver world-class teaching, learning and research. In this article, the opportunities of adopting what might be termed a data-driven approach to library systems and services are explored. What this approach means for libraries and how it can help transform and improve the services and support libraries provide to their users are also considered. In exploring the potential of a data-driven approach to library infrastructure and the benefits it has for libraries (as well as publishers, system vendors and third parties), it is clear a new information ecosystem begins to emerge. The library finds itself transformed, effort is redistributed and the library's services and systems become more agile and take on an entrepreneurial flair. This emerging information ecology is, arguably, the study of the future of the academic library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 11 projects funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to explore ways in content development through content owners' engagement within universities and the public in Great Britain. It features the Digitising data for disparate communities: Naval history and climate science project, which allows the general public to transcribe their meteorological data through crowd sourcing. It also highlights the significance of Community Content projects to libraries.