Engagement HubYear 12 Enterprise Computing · Library data case

NSW Public Library Data Analysis Case Study

You are an independent data analyst for Penrith City Council. Over three weeks you read how the data is built, analyse it against similar-sized councils, and advise the Council Committee.

Read the briefStart at Week 5
Task weighting20%
Date of issue21 Aug 2026 (Week 5, Term 3)
Due date11 Sep (Week 8)
Report1,500 to 1,900 words
Also submitWorking Analysis Workbook

Three-week plan

Week 5Relationships and criteriaWeek 6AnalysisEnd of Week 6GateWeek 7RecommendationsWeek 8Submission
Support
Full support
Contingent support
GATE
Independent track · support withdrawn
Scaffolded track · minimal cues
Submit11 Sep (Week 8)
Report
Section 1400-500 words
Section 2600-800 words + Visualisation
Two open questions · set your Week 7 kit
Section 3500-600 words
Report+ workbook
Inclusion Bench
Term cards · staged draft 1: term check
Modified worksheet · staged draft 2: chart + one paragraph
Sentence frames · staged draft 3: full text
Feedback Loop
Read the annotated sample before drafting
Keep an uptake log for every annotation
Before / after check on your own paragraph

Week by week

WEEK 5MARKING CRITERIA 1

Section 1: Overview and Evaluation Framework

  • Keys, data types and joins
  • What a field measures vs how it is used
  • Stakeholders and their data needs
  • 3 to 4 objective criteria
WEEK 6MARKING CRITERIA 2

Section 2: Data Analysis

  • Per-capita normalisation
  • Peer group
  • Data inconsistencies
  • Data chart
WEEK 7MARKING CRITERIA 3 AND 4

Section 3: Recommendations

  • Evaluation against Section 1 criteria
  • Stakeholder requests
  • Limitations and assumptions
  • Executive register

Practice data

NSW Public Library Statistics 2024–25 (State Library of NSW, CC BY 4.0): the 15 councils of 60,000–120,000 residents, plus Kiama. A different population band from the Penrith task’s comparison group.

Data table and calibration pairA Band C and a top-band paragraph to mark blind. Feedback Loop worked exampleOne sentence about Cessnock, revised.