Open Data Story

by Amalie Barras

A library is...

a lot of things. but in its most basic essence...

a place that connects people to books.

I wanted to know...

Which library is connecting people to the most books?

But there's a lot in here

So I used the data dictionary to find what metrics I needed.

Now let's see the numbers!

Looks like Carnegie has no books...

And NoBo circulates way fewer books per visit...

Why is that?

Enter qualitative data!

I went to the Boulder Public Library main branched and asked a librarian why she thought fewer books are checked out per person at the NoBo Branch.

NoBo library is more of a "distribution center"

They focus more on fulfillment activities.

Which explains why the circulation starts at 0 and grows over time.

In conclusion...

In Conclusion

This is a fun example of how quantitative data doesn't always answer all the questions (sometimes even the simple ones) but in conjunction with some human-centered qualitative research, can reveal all sorts of info about the way organizations perform.