Good data visualizations for library reporting?

May 21, 2014 8:50 AM

I'm looking for examples of attractive, compelling data visualizations by libraries showing use by patrons, engagement with communities, etc.. Basically, clear, eye-catching demonstrations by libraries of their value, with an emphasis on numbers / statistics. What should I be looking at?
posted by ryanshepard to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Did you check out google image search? Lots of graphs and visualizations. If you click on individual images, you can follow through to the page of origin, often leading to exactly what you are looking for, such as here.
posted by rada at 9:00 AM on May 21, 2014

The Seattle Central Public Library hired an artist to do their data visualizations. I checked it out at ALA mid-winter a couple years ago, and it was definitely the clearest, most beautiful example of this I have seen. It is called "Making Visible the Invisible". There are lots of videos and photos online, if you can't see it in person.
posted by 2ghouls at 9:20 AM on May 21, 2014

This is a good recent ROI study. (Of a special library, but probably pretty generally interesting. Not my library.) The director behind it also worked on this document about how to do valuation studies. It says "for transportation librarians" but, again, seems broadly useful.
posted by clavicle at 12:58 PM on May 21, 2014

http://www.tadl.org/about/stats - About the Travers Area District Library Statistics Dashboard.

I'm guessing the various open source integrated library systems, aka library management systems, can generate dashboards and spreadsheets with usage statistics. (rereading your query, you probably already know this.)
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:24 PM on May 21, 2014