vizLib pioneers data visualisation of library users
Mapping of library use in Leicestershire – as part of the 5-month vizLib project – could lead to a revolution in library service improvement.
The vizLib project crunched through 2.5m Talis records to turn them into maps that can be morphed and animated. This has opened up new dimensions on user data, that don't emerge from the numbers alone (though the short time-scale, and limited funding, mean that potential impacts on policy are not fully clear).
A public workshop to present the project already has 40 people interested nationally (with some on its waiting list), without any advertising.
The staff member behind this (unique?) project, Robert Radburn, has even won an 'Improvement and Development Award' at a council awards ceremony.
“vizLib has given us an unprecedented understanding of the way in which the people of Leicestershire use our library services,” says Robert.
“In a time when many public sector offerings are facing cut backs, research such as this is vital in ensuring that policy and funding support what citizens want, and that the standards of our provision remain high.”
I've long been personally keen to find a library system that has done a 'Social Network Analysis' (SNA) of their library users, as I suspected it could throw up valuable insights.
I've not delved into Robert's research, but this certainly seems to be the kind of thing Leicestershire have done. Though Robert tells me that his project users neither SNA software, nor Geographical Information System (GIS) software – in fact they made use of Processing.org's open source software, for visual artists et al. ("Processing is an open source programming language and environment for
people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by
students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for
learning, prototyping, and production").
(Another aside, I'm also keen to uncover a library service that has undertaken a Psychographic segmentation analysis of its users - as this could perhaps uncover large segments of 'missing' users that are rendered invisible by the usual clunky demographic segmentations. Psychographic segmentation – which looks more deeply, into people's values, motivations and lifestyles – would also makes clear how to most effectively target each segment of users, in library marketing campaigns. CILIP trainer, and marketing expert, Terry Kendrick has found one US library which has used psychographic segmentation - though it's not clear whether they use their analysis in any ongoing or strategic manner).
Dan Jellinek wrote a nice article Leicestershire's project in a recent issue of his excellent e-Government Bulletin.
Here's what Dan wrote:
Leicestershire Pioneers ‘Data Visualisation’ For Service Improvement
A series of pioneering projects using ‘data visualisation’ techniques to show how public services are used and what people feel about them was unveiled this month by Leicestershire County Council.
Leicestershire is working on the projects with City University London’s ‘giCentre’ (http://www.gicentre.org), a geographical information research unit. An initial five-month project, now complete, has been testing visualisation techniques to help policymakers analyse residents’ library usage.
Interactive graphical formats were used to link a database of 450,000 lending records from 54 libraries to user household addresses, helping managers to see how borrower location, library size, transport links and other factors might affect service take-up (see http://bit.ly/6OPMiX ).
Examples of visualisation techniques used include a ‘Tree map’ [SEE BOTTOM GRAPHIC IN THIS POST] built up of blocks, whose size and colour reflect key data points such as geographical location and frequency of library use. A separate ‘flow map’ [SEE TOP GRAPHIC] uses clusters of lines to show how far people are travelling to each library.
The results allow complex data and systems to be analysed in far more effective ways than poring over tables of figures, Robert Radburn, Research Manager at Leicestershire, told E-Government Bulletin. “How do you go about looking through 450,000 records?”
The charts could help library managers spot patterns which could suggest which services are doing well and which are under-performing, Radburn said. “Certain areas have higher or lower than expected use, in some areas people travelling a lot further than once thought. We can ask – why is this library doing better than that?”
The council is already beginning a further service data visualisation project: the creation of a public website to display a range of information about council services and spending alongside customer satisfaction survey data. The new work – also with the giCentre – is supported by £32,000 of funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) as part of its ‘Timely information to citizens’ initiative, and will include data from Leicestershire’s ‘Place Survey’, a poll of citizens’ views now required to take place in all local government areas in England every two years (http://bit.ly/5c9BiK).
The county hopes to extend visualisation techniques even wider in due course and is investigating possibilities for funding for projects in other service areas as well, Radburn said.
NOTE: Leicestershire is holding a workshop on its libraries data visualisation project on 3 March at Loughborough University. For more information email: robert.radburn@leics.gov.uk
NOTE: Article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 302.
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Matthew Mezey
(News Editor, Library and Information Update magazine)
