Category: Web of Data

New guide to data-driven decision-making for library improvement

Facet Publishing have announced the publication of Library Improvement through Data Analytics by Lesley S. J. Farmer and Alan M. Safer.Farmer &amp; Safer_FACET COVER_04

This book shows how to make sense of data in libraries and use it to inform decision making at every level.

Sound data analytics is the foundation for making an evidence-based case for libraries, in addition to guiding myriad organizational decisions, from optimizing operations for efficiency to responding to community needs. Designed to be useful for beginners as well as those with a background in data, this book introduces the basics of a six point framework that can be applied to a variety of library settings for effective system based, data-driven management.

The guide covers such key topics as:

  • the basics of statistical concepts
  • recommended data sources for various library functions and processes, and guidance for using census, university, or chamber of comm
    erce data in analysis
  • techniques for cleaning data
  • matching data to appropriate data analysis methods
  • how to make descriptive statistics more powerful by spotlighting relationships
  • 14 case studies which address such areas as digitization, e-book collection development and reference
  • staffing, facilities, and instruction.

This book’s clear, concise coverage will enable readers of every experience level to gain a better understanding of statistics in order to facilitate library improvement. It will be essential reading for library managers and key decision makers.

More information: http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=301614

Facilitating Access to the Web of Data

Chris Mavergames said the following about the new Facet book Facilitating Access to the Web of Data by David Stuart:

‘All in all, Stuart has produced a must-read for any library or information professional (or anyone working in the delivery, structuring and organization of information via the web, which includes a whole host of other folks). Without getting mired in technical details, but yet providing enough for the uninitiated to get a “flavour” for what’s involved, there is enough here to sink one’s teeth into and links to other resources for further reading to expand on the concepts introduced in this work. I highly recommend it!’

Mavergames is an Information Architect at the Cochrane Collaboration in Freiburg, Germany.  The full review can be read on his website which is also an excellent resource for librarians interested in web 2,0 and linked data.

More information about the book, including the table of contents and a free sample chapter can be found on the Facet website.
https://facetpublishing.wordpress.com/category/web-of-data/
facetpublishing.wordpress.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2019-18
74524
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:ANFERUZLH4RCLZGOZJUCGJIIH3525FIQ
<urn:uuid:557051fa-0c36-46f6-918d-9042a7c47f32>
2019-04-25T13:50:40Z
192.0.78.12
text/html
sha1:PLUO3MH5BNI3NVFRB2IODMRHU34QNXUP
<urn:uuid:99d0682d-ad98-4fcf-8409-6e45240544ad>
https://facetpublishing.wordpress.com/category/web-of-data/
response
<urn:uuid:ce44d266-af11-4ab9-915b-b0fcdff4f2a7>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-18
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-165-178-231.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.1-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/