Data Visualization | MacOdrum Library

Introduction

Presentation given to Library staff, August 2016, including annotated bibliography

Understanding Data Visualizations

Chart Suggestions--A Thought-Starter
Data Visualization Module from SAGE Research Methods
Data Visualization for All (open access textbook introducing Data Viz)
from Data to Viz
NComVA--Guide to Visualizations
The Data Visualisation Catalogue

Visualizing Real-Time Data

Suggested Twitter Feeds to Follow

@BBCNewsGraphics (BBC News Graphics)
@BBGVisualData (Bloomberg Graphics)
@DataIsBeautiful (Reddit /r/DataIsBeautiful)
@EdwardTufte (Edward Tufte)
@flowingdata (Nathan Yau)
@GIS_Carleton (GIS @ CU Library)
@GuardianVisuals (Guardian Visuals)
@HansRosling (Remembering Hans Rosling)
@infobeautiful (Info=Beautiful)
@mccandelish (David McCandless)
@nytgraphics (NYT Graphics)
@PostGraphics (Post Graphics)
@ReutersGraphics (Reuters Graphics)
@tableaupublic (Tableau Public)
@UpshotNYT (The Upshot)
@WSJGraphics (WSJ News Graphics)
@WTFViz (WTFViz)

Data Visualization in the News

Articles Worth Reading

What Makes the Best Infographics So Convincing (Harvard Business Review--Blog Network)
When Data Journalism Goes Wrong (Forbes)

Websites of Interest

ATLAS (discovery platform for charts developed by Quartz + the source data)
Codecademy Learn to Code Interactively, for Free
DataVizProject.com comprehensive collection of types of data visualizations
Data Visualization on Pinterest
Duke University Libraries Data and Visualization Services Blog (includes tutorials)
FlowingData Uses of visualization
WTF Visualizations (examples of visualizations that make no sense!)

Tools and Examples

Free Tools to Get You Started Creating Your Own Visualizations

Canva Graph Maker (variety of graphing styles and presentation concepts)
Datawrapper (standard visualizations, some interaction; copy/paste simple charts or upload .CSV files)
Draw.io (for manually creating flowcharts and static diagrams)
Gapminder (creates animated bubble charts/maps over time; limited to data on website: from a variety of international organizations)
Google Fusion Tables (produces various maps and charts; can upload own data, merge data sets)
infogr.am (can produce many charts/infographics and make public or embed; download requires purchase; can upload .CSV or .XLS files)
RAW (copy data from a spreadsheet or delimiter-separated values file to produce a variety of static vector graphics)
Tableau Public (tell stories with data on the web)
Free download for students here. Need instructions? Check Youtube videos on how to use Tableau.
Word Tree (graphical representation of text, focused on keywords)

Other Tools and Resources to Explore for Creating Visualizations

22 Free Tools for Data Visualization and Analysis (ComputerWorld)
Data-Driven Documents (D3 - JavaScript library for developing interactive data using HTML, SVG, and CSS)
- Some examples
DataVisualization.ch (collection of tools)
FlowingData (explores interesting experiments in visualization, including tutorials for preparing your own visualizations)
Knight Lab Projects (to "promote quality journalism, storytelling and content on the internet")
- Example: TimelineJS (open-source tool to create interactive timelines)
Neatline (tell stories with maps and timelines)
Plotly
R (free software environment for statistical computing and graphics)
Sprites (for creating animated infographics on the web)

Tools for Scraping/Cleaning Data

import.io (web data extraction made easy)
OpenRefine (Excel-like tool for cleaning and transforming data)
- Recipes
- Clustering in Depth
OutWit Hub (scrape data from html webpages to export into a spreadsheet)

Examples of Data Visualization

Asian Development Bank (ADB): Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific: Framework of Inclusive Growth Indicators 2014
Baby Names Popularity: NameVoyager
Community Research Connections (CRC): Visualizations used to illustrate their research on Canadian community development
Connected China (Reuters)
Digital Commons Network: Explore scholarly articles and other academic content in institutional repositories from around the world
The Fallen of World War II (18 minute video visualizing military and civilian deaths)
Google (Big Picture) Research Group (making complex data accessible, useful, and even fun)
Google Books Ngram Viewer: see volume of keyword(s) appearing in Google Books over time
Google: Public Data
The Holy Bible
Information is Beautiful: Ideas, Issues, Knowledge, Data--Visualized!
The Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop
The Library Project: Browsing the collection of Columbia University Library
Linked Jazz: Relationships in the Jazz Community
LivePlasma: Discovery engine for music, books, and movies
Looking Back: How Different Groups Voted (2008 U.S. Presidential election, Democratic nomination)
The Middle East: Key Players & Notable Relationships
NewsMap: A treemap visualization of Google News
Newspaper Map: Newspapers plotted by location
OECD Data (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
- Data Visualisation for Key OECD Data (Compare your Country)
OSINT Framework: Open-source intelligence -- interactive tree diagram of resources
Pan Inuit Trails (interactive historical atlas of Inuit mobility and occupancy in Canada's North)
Periscopic (firm which helps companies and organizations promote information transparency and public awareness)
Polygraph (explores popular culture with data and visual storytelling)
US News Map (chronologically plots historical newspapers from the Library of Congress by keyword on a map of the United States)
Visual Complexity (examples of visualizations according to subject)
Voyant Tools: Textual analysis includes count of most frequent words/phrases, word clouds, occurrence throughout document, with many options to visualize
World Health Organization (WHO) Data and Statistics
World population growth

Data Sources, Maps, and GIS

MacOdrum Library's Data Centre

The Data Centre provides quantitative research data from various disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and life sciences

Online Mapping Tools

CARTO (a cloud-based solution for all your mapping needs)
Leaflet (open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps)
Polymaps (free JavaScript library for making dynamic, interactive maps in modern web browser)
QGIS (desktop software to create, edit, visualize, analyze and publish geospatial information)

Visualizing the Earth in Two Dimensions

Map Projection Transitions (select projection in drop-down menu)
Visualizing Map Distortion (select projection in drop-down menu)

GIS

Books, Journals, and Videos

Books

(Select) Journals

Videos

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats [4:47] (Hans Rosling, BBC Four)
Four Pillars of Data Visualization [46:11] (Noah Lliinsky)
Journalism in the Age of Data [8 chapters, 5-10 minutes each]
TED Playlist: Making Sense of Too Much Data [5-20 minutes each]