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  • Writer's picturePorsche Everson

Books and literature


I need some help!

stacks of books surrounding reading chair with coffee cup

I’m seeking some ideas about literature-related data visualization opportunities.

Backstory:

  • The company Tableau is doing an “Iron Viz Global” competition, as they do every year. It’s like the Iron Chef competitions, but for data analysts. Pretty geeky, I know.

  • This year’s first feeder theme is “Books and Literature” (how fun is that!). It is very broadly defined.

  • I plan to enter the Iron Viz competition.

  • There are three qualifying rounds, and entrants will be winnowed at each round. Three finalists will be invited to the annual Tableau conference, where there will be a live competition that is very much like what happens on TV’s Iron Chef show.

How you can help me:

Think of several “I wonder…” questions related to books or literature that would be interesting to you and might somehow advance social good. Here’s a couple of starter examples:

  • I wonder what a library density map would look like for the US?

  • Is there a relationship between library availability and reading scores? Or, library availability and community health?

  • How much do we read? By age group, by state, by, gender, by book type? How has that changed in the past 50 years?

  • How have publishing trends impacted our reading? What about the availability of e-books and audiobooks?

  • Kids who read are kids who succeed: Some sort of question about early literacy and how reading improves lives over time.

Send me any references to data sources related to books and literature.

  • Specific URLs are welcome.

  • General ideas for where to source data like “Search for open library data sources” which led me to this cool site I found: https://openlibrary.org/data.

This is what I do for fun. <LOL> Thanks so much if you can help me out.


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