Effectively Visualizing Library Data

• Published in: Reference and user services quarterly Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 93 - 97
• Main Author: Phetteplace, Eric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago American Library Association 22.12.2012
• Subjects: Academic Libraries; Accidental Technologist; Art galleries & museums; Charts; Colors; Data visualization; Database administration; Datasets; Design; Graphs; Indexing; Information management software; Instrument panels; Keywords; Libraries; Library circulation; Library collections; Library operations; McCandless, David; Methods; Programming languages; Public Libraries; Rectangles; Reference services; Software; Statistics; Technology application; Trends; Visualization; Visualization (Computer); Visualization (Computers); Workstations; United States; New York; United States > US; Indianapolis Indiana
• ISSN: 1094-9054; 2163-5242
• DOI: 10.5860/rusq.52n2.93

The Seattle Public Library features a live-updating dashboard showing recent circulations and intricate networks of keywords.3 The Harvard Library Lab is working on a powerful tool to view collection size and circulation by subject heading.4 The Indianapolis Museum of Art has a web dashboard that boldly presents their changing quantities of artwork, memberships, visitors, and of course Facebook fans.5 Brown University Libraries are working on a similar idea that presents live data such as checkouts in embeddable "widget" form.6 The North Carolina State University Libraries have an ambitious data visualization project that aims to visualize the usage of reference services, course tools, computer workstations, and group study rooms.7 These are all great strides being made by innovative libraries. [...]the red-green color scheme will not be apparent to people with certain forms of colorblindness.