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experiments in data visualization

This is series of basic data visualizations using Javascript and the D3 libary based loosely on the bubble pack layout examples by Mike Bostock.

Library and Special Collections Data Visualization [example online at http://merleaux.net/vis]

These are the humble beginnings of a grander scheme to create a set of visualization-based browsing discovery tools that can be applied to exploration of cultural heritage collections. A d3 bubble pack-style data visualization with a twist, this pulls directly from a database via the associated php script and displays place names derived from a library catalog. The size of bubble corralates to the number of records with that place name. Clicking on the bubble opens a search for that place name in the catalog.

Next steps are to tie the PHP directly to the JSON output of a database API or even multiple collection API's.

In a perfect world of standardized, authoritative metadata these sorts of visualization browsings can lead to new insights about the contents and makeup of a collection - revealing themes previously not noticed. In the more common world of legacy data that still needs thousands of hours of cleanup, these tools are just as useful in a different way - illuminating errors and inconsistencies in a way that makes them both hard to ignore and easy to locate and fix.