iSchool Capstone

Improving Metrics for Library Comparisons

Project tags:

data science & visualization

software development

Project poster

With approximately 9,000 public library systems across the United States, the Seattle Public Library (SPL) faces the challenge of identifying a network of similar library systems for collaboration.  The current comparison and analytics are somewhat basic and only take into consideration traditional library measures. These measures do not capture the complexity of the diverse communities in which the libraries are rooted. The goal of this project is to build on these measures and incorporate demographic data to enable a holistic comparison. Additionally, rigorous statistical analysis methods will be applied to the data in order to improve the accuracy of results. By identifying and collaborating with similar libraries, SPL will be more effective at serving its community.

Project participants:

Huong Ho

MSIM

Nadee Ritviroon

MSIM

Wen Bin Wu

MSIM

Xinxin Dong

MSIM