Data Visualizations and Infographics

By (author) Sarah K. C. Mauldin Series edited by Ellyssa Kroski

Hardback - £85.00

Publication date:

26 August 2015

Length of book:

134 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442243866

Graphics which visually represent data or complex ideas are oftentimes easier for people to understand and digest than standalone statistics. A map shaded with different colors to represent religious affiliations or income levels enables researchers to quickly identify trends and patterns. New free tools and applications offer librarians the opportunity to organize and manipulate data to quickly create these helpful graphics. Learn how to overlay data sets on maps, create infographics for library services and instruction, use mindmapping for group brainstorming sessions, produce detailed timelines, process flowcharts, diagrams, and much more in this complete how-to-guidebook.

This complete how-to guidebook provides you with the tools and inspiration you need to use infographics and data visualization techniques in your library to knock your audience’s socks off as you tell your story in a visual format that can be consumed and understood at a glance.

You will learn how to:
  • use the tools you already have to create a simple infographic;
  • create a library services infographic using Piktochart;
  • create instructional infographics with Easel.ly;
  • create interactive timelines; mindmap your brainstorming meetings;
  • create library flowcharts and diagrams using Creately;
  • create interactive maps with imported data; and
  • create complex data visualizations.
Data Visualizations and Infographics is an accessible book for information professionals with varying levels of, or even no, experience with graphic design or image-generating tools. Though useful for all levels of expertise, it gives attention to the timid user, allowing the reader, chapter by chapter, to take small, comfortable steps up to designing a project of his or her own with many tools and strategies. In a time when libraries are urged to rethink how information is disseminated, Sarah K.C. Mauldin not only instructs but sets out to inspire librarians to think about their stories and how they might share them with their communities in palatable, visual forms. . . .It can be used as a handbook or read as an overview of infographics and data visualizations, and how libraries have used and can use them to further their mission. . . . I found this text to have three purposes: to be persuasive, instructional, and informative. There are a number of books that review available tools, but with this book’s catering to library projects and including successful case studies, it is unique in that it also addresses the reservations library professionals might have about creating visual projects, including why they are useful. Mauldin digs into the process in a very practical way to answer questions, to relieve those reservations, and to help make plans. She provides inspiration to be innovative with examples of how other libraries have used visual tools to tell stories to their audiences. . . .She successfully gives both novices and designers the techniques and tools to corral and create in any context.