Content on this site is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, unless an alternative statement is made e.g. for a photo or a visualisation using third-party data.
Who is this for?
The project is designed for library staff, supporters, suppliers (e.g. bibliographic data or software providers who work with library data), and anyone interested in telling stories about libraries.
Who runs it?
I (Dave Rowe) am a software developer, and have been working in and around the public library sector for about 15 years.
During that time I founded Libraries Hacked, a project to promote open data and digital prototypes for public libraries, and have been involved in community digital projects that have used library data in interesting ways.
Library data storytelling is a project to promote the use of data in libraries, as well as providing a platform for sharing stories about libraries.
What does a data story look like?
There are many ways to tell a story using data. This site is designed as a series of case studies as individually published posts. Each post may typically include:
- A title and description that summarises the story
- Background context to the data and how it relates to real activities in the library
- Challenges in the data, and questions that the data might help to answer
- The story that the data told such as changing use of library services, or the impact of a new service
- A visualisation that helps tell the story
- Insight into how the story could inform future decisions
The story should be accessible and written for a wide audience. I’ll be happy to work with you to help tell the story in a way that is engaging and informative. Ideally staff would be as involved as much as possible in this process, to make it rewarding and valuable to them.
Alternatively, you may already have a fully realised story that you’d like to share, in which case I’d be happy to help you publish it on this site.
What are the beneficial outcomes of telling a data story?
The act of exploring data is a powerful way of learning about how libraries work, and satisfying curiosity about our services. So, there are no fails in this project - even if you don’t end up with a story, you’ll have learned more about your library and the data you hold. This will increase your data literacy, and help make better decisions in the future.
At a wider level we do a disservice to libraries by not making data more accessible and open, and telling the stories held in data to a wider audience. I believe it’s a powerful way to promote libraries, and to help people understand the value of libraries in their communities.
How does it work?
The process of creating a data story will be collaborative. It will typically involve the following steps:
- Initial meeting to discuss the story you want to tell, and ideas for data
- Time for preliminary actions, signoff processes, arranging time and people to work on the project
- More formal catchups to discuss progress, and to ensure that any work is on track such as extracting data, cleaning data, and creating visualisations
- Final writeup of the story, and any follow up actions
The story would then be published on this site, and shared with the wider library community.
How much time will you need to spend on this?
Time is precious, though I believe that doing more varied work with library data will always be productive and rewarding. For anyone contributing a story to this project I’ll do my best to ensure that the time any staff spend is well spent and contributes to personal and organisational development.
The exact amount of time will depend on the story you want to tell, and the complexity of the data and any processes to get it. I would suggest setting deadlines for the work, and catching up on a regular basis to ensure people can work at their own pace. For example, meeting once every couple of weeks for a few months.
Does the data need to be open?
It would be lovely if the stories in this project also included regularly published open datasets that could be used by others to expand on that story.
However, I understand there can be a reluctance to do too much at once. It will always be down to the service as data controllers whether to publish data or not. We should describe the data we’re usin and the processes used to extract and analyse it. This will help others to replicate the work for themselves.
Data protection and terms of use
It is always essential to consider data protection and privacy. In the majority of cases data can be open, and considering open data helps libraries to be more aware of the sensitive and personal data they hold, and how to protect it.
The data used on this site is either open data, or data that has been anonymised and aggregated to protect the privacy of individuals. If you have any concerns about the data used on this site, please do get in touch.
For library services and organisations that would like to work on this project, I will never ask for access to personal data, and will always work with you to ensure the data we use is appropriate and safe. I have experience in working with sensitive data and public data, such as during my time as senior developer at Bath and North East Somerset Council, where I was technical lead in a large-scale open data programme across the council.
Before working on any data we will have a discussion about the data to ensure that it is appropriate to use.
How can I get involved?
Long term ambitions
Long term I would love to see a community of library data storytellers, who regularly share their stories, challenges, and experiences with each other. I would be happy to help facilitate this community, and to help you get involved.
I would also love to add physical publishing to this project, such as a newspaper, printed cards, or other mediums. Not to replicate the stories that are available here, but to accompany them. Physical publishing can be a great way to reach people who might not be online, and to engage in a different way - plus wouldn’t it be great to have physical copies of visualisations and library data stories?