AASL Members,

The ALA Committee on Research and Statistics is offering a free webinar on Nov 7 on best practices in the graphical presentation of data. This webinar is an excellent lead in to the webinar AASL is hosting the following week on “The Power of Data.”  Please consider registering for both webinars!  Registration information for the ALA webinar is below.  You can register for the AASL webinar at www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab.

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Seeing is Believing:  Understanding Data Visualization for Library Research

Date: Wednesday, Nov. 7

Time: 2PM Eastern time | 1PM Central time | Noon Mountain time | 11AM Pacific time

Duration: 1.5 hours

Register for access: Use this Adobe Connect link to register; if this email comes with the hyperlink disabled/ you have registration problems, please email nrose@ala.org before Tuesday Nov. 6 to register. Space is limited to 97 attendees.

This free webinar, sponsored by the ALA Committee on Research and Statistics, will provide an overview of best practices in the graphical presentation of quantitative information, emphasizing the need for clarity, fairness, accuracy, and visual efficiency. The purpose of data visualization is to display data impartially in order to uncover the 'stories' data have to tell. When presentations follow the graphical principles presented, then trustworthy and useful stories can emerge from our data.

The webinar recommends avoiding marketing-oriented visualization designs that trivialize quantitative evidence while seeking to engage and entertain audiences. Attendees will learn how to select graphical formats to portray their data effectively. An introductory subset from the larger array of graphical best practices will be presented.

The workshop aims to provide attendees with a taste of this fascinating topic in order to inspire further study of works by visualization experts Edward Tufte, William Cleveland, Howard Wainer, Stephen Few, and Dona Wong.

Presenter: Ray Lyons is a statistical programmer, independent consultant, and trainer in library performance measurement. He is the co-creator of the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service. His articles on library assessment have appeared in Public Library Quarterly, Public Libraries, and Library & Information Science Research.  Ray has masters degrees in library and information science and in public administration, with a specialty in quantitative methods. He writes at http://libperformance.com/.