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Mix it up: Libraries mash up data, services and ideas Advocacy: From Awareness to Funding Tips & Tricks: How to keep your eHoldings up to date Labs: The user is always right Moving discovery and delivery to the network Research: Visualizing the globalization of WorldCat Connecting governance and vision Download this issue (4.5 MB pdf)
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Visualizing the globalization of WorldCat
By Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, OCLC Research, Although maps of the world have existed for thousands of years, today’s Internet technology makes it possible to create and display vast amounts of information in dynamic, interactive maps. Geographically representing data on maps can provide a clear, easy-to-understand depiction of large datasets that enable the user to manipulate and display the data in multiple ways. The result is the OCLC WorldMap1, a prototype that depicts bibliographic data from WorldCat and statistics from other sources. Our colleagues at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) asked us to identify ARL member libraries’ holdings in WorldCat and the country of publication as part of the Global Resources Network initiative2. WorldCat contains more than 100 million records representing more than a billion holdings of library and museum resources worldwide. WorldCat can thus be used to describe library collections geographically as well as bibliographically; to provide data for collection assessment, evaluation and comparison; and to make decisions regarding digitization, reservation and remote storage. Since mining data from WorldCat can be applied in so many uses, we thought it would be a great opportunity to create a visual tool for the management and representation of geographically-based library statistics: not only those mined from WorldCat, but also those collected from reliable third-party sources. The data mined from WorldCat include holdings (the number of libraries holding a title), number of titles published and languages represented for titles published in each country. The data collected from other sources include total number of libraries, certified/degreed librarians, volumes, expenditures and registered users for every country in the world broken down by major library type: academic, public, school, special and national. We also included for each country the number of cultural heritage institutions, publishers and people. It became apparent that the availability, currency and accuracy of the data collected from sources other than WorldCat were not consistent for all countries. For many countries, especially in Africa and Latin America, data were either unavailable or sporadic. For most of the rest of the world, including the United States, the data were not as current as we would like. However, we felt that recent figures were better than none at all, although it is reasonable to assume that the data in the prototype represent an underestimate of worldwide totals in all categories. Accuracy was jeopardized because we had to convert expenditures from euros and local currency to U.S. dollars, and to manually tabulate data obtained from some printed sources. We created spreadsheets for each type of statistical data; then we input these data into a database that was integrated for display in the WorldMap when specific countries are selected on the map. Many different technologies are available for creating interactive geographical interfaces. We determined that the WorldMap would need to be relatively inexpensive to implement and maintain and should be developed with open-source/open standards components. The map also had to be able to present a wide range of data and allow for the possible modification of that data by someone with minimal technical knowledge. We decided early in the development of the map that it should be a Web-available application that is accessible to a broad audience via many different browser platforms. Everything used to create the OCLC WorldMap prototype is either open-source or uses a freely available specification. We designed it to run on a screen with 1024x768 or higher resolution; it requires the use of Adobe Flash Player 9.3.3 The user may select up to four countries by clicking on their images in the WorldMap. The country name and flag are added to the “Countries Selected for Comparison” box. Clicking on the “Compare” button provides a more detailed view of the datasets. (See Figure 1.)
The WorldMap generates a graph that visually presents comparative library data. By pointing the cursor to any part of the graph, the user can see details of the data being compared. (See Figure 2.) In this example, the data displayed are total WorldCat holdings for titles published in each country.
Data that were not mined from WorldCat are generated in a comparative graph by clicking on any of the buttons in the left-hand pane of the screen. Many of the statistics may be displayed by type of library. (See Figure 3.)
The user is able to view the complete set of WorldMap data for each country and to display the sources for the data. (See Figure 4.)
The WorldMap can not only assist librarians, but also publishers and marketing and sales staff, in discovering and manipulating country-related data. Among the many possibilities for adding information to the WorldMap are the identification of the geographic “aboutness” of titles and holdings in WorldCat and the languages spoken in each country. The possibilities for expanding the WorldMap are without boundaries!4
References: The authors would like to acknowledge Jeremy Browning, J.D. Shipengrover and Timothy Dickey for their assistance with this project.
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OCLC WorldMap presents library data in an interactive, graphical interface 
