[2024]Digital Global Overview Report 2024 Meltwater.pdf
Visualizing Library Data
1. Visualizing Library Data
Bohyun Kim
Associate Director for Library Applications/Knowledge Systems
University of Maryland, Baltimore
@bohyunkim
Code4Lib 2016 Conference
2. Data for ___?
• Data for proving the usage of library collections & services
: A vanity dashboard demonstrating the library’s value
OR
• Data for better decision-making
: A decision-making tool
4. We Decided to Build a Prototype!
• “LibStats” project
• A small team of two people
• We inventoried all data sources programmable through connecting to
either a backend db or a vendor-provided API
• Then we made a lot of charts and graphs.
(PHP + Google Charts Library)
• Then we showed them to the senior administration.
17. On which day of the week do people return
most library books?
18. Is This Useful Enough? Remaining Questions.
• What question did you expect to find answers for using the library
data?
• Some observations are useful.
• But better to know what questions you are looking to answer in
advance.
• What questions are you looking to answer?