Thursday, May 7, 2015

Data Visualization and Rapid Analytics: Applying Tableau Desktop to Support Library Decision-Making.

Michelle DeFazio

Murphy, S. (2013). Data Visualization and Rapid Analytics: Applying Tableau Desktop to Support Library Decision-Making.  Journal of Web Librarianship, 7(4), pp. 465-476. Doi: 10.1080/19322909.2013.825148.


Summary: This article discusses the use of Tableau software to rapidly analyze usage of LibGuides at the Ohio State University Library.   Tableau could be a great advantage to understand statistics collected in terms of usage of materials and tools as well as other statistics that librarians should keep track of in today’s academic libraries to promote better service, support education and research,  and justify library budgets.

Evaluation:  While Tableau's visual analytics can rapidly show usage of services, the library must first do the hard work of collecting the statistics which is not something that all libraries do.  Moreover, Tableau is primarily a business tool and the language reflects this.  The person who runs the software must be knowledgeable  enough to change the terminology from terms like "revenue" to "usage" as the article states, which requires a whole new set of expertise on the library staff.

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