{"id":504,"date":"2018-01-18T17:59:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T17:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/?p=504"},"modified":"2018-01-18T18:01:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T18:01:14","slug":"visualizing-our-data-with-tableau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/visualizing-our-data-with-tableau\/","title":{"rendered":"Visualizing Our Data With Tableau"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston College Libraries are committed to using data to better understand how members of the BC community use the libraries\u2019 services, spaces, and collections and to make informed decisions. While we have long collected data, more recently we have started to use this data to create interactive dashboards that visualize this information in new ways and allow users to explore our data. These dashboards allow library staff to better understand the data that we have collected, but they also given patrons an insight into the work that we do. To this end, we have made several dashboards publicly available on our new <a href=\"https:\/\/public.tableau.com\/profile\/boston.college.library.assessment.outreach#!\/\">Tableau Public profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, these visualizations cover library instruction data, information about questions at our reference desks, and visualizations on how spaces are used at both O\u2019Neill Library and the Social Work Library.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-507\" src=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image001-853x1024.png\" alt=\"A series of data visualization graphs regarding Library usage\" width=\"840\" height=\"1008\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image001-853x1024.png 853w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image001-250x300.png 250w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image001-768x922.png 768w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image001.png 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-506\" src=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image003-1024x750.png\" alt=\"A series of data visualization graphs regarding Library usage\" width=\"840\" height=\"615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image003-1024x750.png 1024w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image003-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image003-768x563.png 768w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/image003.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We plan to update these as data is collected and add additional dashboards and visualizations to our profile in the future, so check back later to see what we are up to! We\u2019ll also be displaying some of the visualizations on the screens in O\u2019Neill Library, so be sure to take a look next time you stop by.<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in learning how to create data visualizations with Tableau yourself or would like to integrate Tableau into an assignment for one of your courses, please feel free to contact Data and Visualization Librarian Allison Xu (<a href=\"mailto:yaqing.xu@bc.edu\">yaqing.xu@bc.edu<\/a>) or attend one of our upcoming Tableau trainings:<\/p>\n<p><strong>An Introduction to Visualizing Data with Tableau<br \/>\nFebruary 21, 2018, 3-4:30 pm.<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>O\u2019Neill Library, Digital Studio, Room 205<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this workshop, participants will get an introductory, hands-on learning experience of Tableau. The workshop will be focused on Tableau key functions, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How to connect to data sources<\/li>\n<li>How to create visuals and assemble them into a dashboard<\/li>\n<li>How to publish the dashboard to the Tableau Public server<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This event is free and open to the public, but we kindly request that you <a href=\"http:\/\/libcal.bc.edu\/event\/3838252\">register<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mapping with Tableau<br \/>\nFebruary 27, 2018, 3-4:30 pm.<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>O\u2019Neill Library, Digital Studio, Room 205<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mapping data is one of the many ways Tableau helps people see the information in relevant, insightful ways to make better decisions. In this workshop, participants will learn how to analyze their data geographically, how to plot the data on a map in Tableau, and what types of maps can be created in Tableau.<\/p>\n<p>This event is free and open to the public, but we kindly request that you <a href=\"http:\/\/libcal.bc.edu\/event\/3838254\">register<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston College Libraries are using Tableau to visualize our data and better understand our users\u2019 needs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[56],"series":[55],"coauthors":[31,58],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-spring2018","series-spring2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}