Abstract

Collection management is one of the more complicated responsibilities in librarianship. In this task, the librarian must simultaneously synthesize the needs, desires, and aspirations of the institution, departments, and individuals. While much of this is elusive qualitative data that may not yield a definitive answer, we also have increasingly accessible hard data from our integrated library systems (ILSs) that we can synthesize to complement it. In the latest generations of ILSs, this information is readily available to use for statistical analysis and visualization. When it comes to our increasingly limited materials budgets, it is important to make sure that we make the best decisions possible, thus it is advantageous to analyze all the data at our disposal. We introduce a web application that produces live statistics from the ILS. The system uses data points, including collection use and metrics, which describe a collection (e.g., age, quantity). This system goes beyond traditional charts and graphs by employing several visualization techniques that lend a unique perspective to these data points. The particular techniques allow collection managers to visualize multiple data points simultaneously and reveal data correlations that might not otherwise be obvious.

Share

COinS
 

Collection Data Visualization: Seeing the Forest Through the Treemap

Collection management is one of the more complicated responsibilities in librarianship. In this task, the librarian must simultaneously synthesize the needs, desires, and aspirations of the institution, departments, and individuals. While much of this is elusive qualitative data that may not yield a definitive answer, we also have increasingly accessible hard data from our integrated library systems (ILSs) that we can synthesize to complement it. In the latest generations of ILSs, this information is readily available to use for statistical analysis and visualization. When it comes to our increasingly limited materials budgets, it is important to make sure that we make the best decisions possible, thus it is advantageous to analyze all the data at our disposal. We introduce a web application that produces live statistics from the ILS. The system uses data points, including collection use and metrics, which describe a collection (e.g., age, quantity). This system goes beyond traditional charts and graphs by employing several visualization techniques that lend a unique perspective to these data points. The particular techniques allow collection managers to visualize multiple data points simultaneously and reveal data correlations that might not otherwise be obvious.