#library data

A rough estimate based on hand-curated stats of my checkouts for the past year, including both counties I’m registered in + any Interlibrary Loans:

Books: 112 E-audiobooks: 70* Audiobooks on CD: 5 DVDs: 10* CDs: 5

(click here for my 2020 data)

*This is what happens when I simultaneously get a Roku TV + access to 3 paid streaming services, and also connect my phone to WiFi in the house for the first time ever. In my defense, some of the audiobooks were only 2 hours and several were 4-6.

In many ways, these are two pretty, pretty useless visuals. But that's not a bad thing. You need  to dig deeper to understand more of the big picture. This is what I love about visual analytics - it isn't about creating one static visual with/for one viewpoint to show it all. It's about taking a look at every possible angle and from different data points. And sometimes it's about realizing your visual isn't working and starting all over again.

The week before last I attended the BC Libraries Co-operative Data Camp – the first of hopefully many to come. The camp was structured like an unconference: no PowerPoint, no 20-minute speeches, and no set schedule. The day began with campers voting for which ideas they wanted to discuss (a google doc for attendees to post ideas had been created ahead of time); the half-day camp then consisted of eight sessions (idea clusters?) – four running concurrently over two time slots. 

I participated in Alex Garnett’s idea cluster, Throwing Good Data After Bad, and Maryann Kempthorne and Phillip Hall’s cluster, Library Metrics for Service Shift.

In Throwing Good Data After Bad, Garnett demonstrated how to use Python and the Google Maps API (plus a little bit of R) to plot messy geographic data from the Ikea website onto a map. Through both the demo and the discussion that followed, it was clear that a little bit of code can go a long way. Over the past few months my focus has just been on SQL  - through a certificate program and self-directed learning, I’m attempting to “become more pro.” But this cluster emphasized that knowing the basics, or a particular application of a programming language, can sometimes be enough (and is definitely a good place to get started).

In the second cluster, Library Metrics for Service Shift, we talked about open library data, standards for library data, and quantitative versus qualitative data. The discussion around standards was particularly interesting. It forced us to think about what individual institutions need versus the library community, and how we might want to incorporate both external library and non-library data into institution-specific data analysis. 

These are the basic descriptions and starting points for the four major worlds of the Cluster. There's more detail to come, particularly regarding political and cultural data, and for the other, minor worlds in each system, as well as more detailed astronomical data for each system, but this is a quick overview.

Each system listed below is Jump-1 from each other (a jump in Traveller is a hyperspace leap that takes about one week subjective time and travels around 1 parsec (~3.26 light years), and is separated from other systems in the subsector by Jump-2 or more.

Possession (0305):

B797575-7, -/N, A,NI

Good quality spaceport. Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance overhaul available. Shipyard capable of building non-starships present. Naval base present.

11,265.36 km in diameter, dense, tainted atmosphere, 70% liquid covered. Population 85,915. Balkanized government. Law level 7 (near spaceport; other areas may be more or less permissive).

Tech level 7: Solar power, non-starships, hovercraft (ground effect hover only, not anti-grav). Body Pistols and mesh armor. Large craft mounted pulse lasers available. Model 2 computers.

Local governments:

Anthe Council: (spaceport) feudal technocracy, TL7, LL7

Physiosys, LLC: company town, TL8, LL8

Farrell Autonarchy: participating democracy, TL6, LL8

Halimedes: colony of the Farrell Autonarchy, native population once part of the Anthe Council territory. TL8, LL8

ChiCanBo Commonwealth: participating democracy, TL6, LL7

Patience (0306):

C613546-A, -/-, NI

Routine quality spaceport. Only unrefined fuel available. Reasonable repair facilities available.

9,656.07 km in diameter. Trace atmosphere (protective suits and oxygen required on surface), 30% liquid covered. Population 356,854. Representative democracy world government. Law Level 6 (most firearms prohibited, open carry only with registration/license). 

Tech Level A: Laser carbine and rifles, Ablat armor, vehicle-mounted beam laser weapons, Model/3 computers, null-grav Air/Rafts, fusion power.

Damn Nubb (0404):

E100336-5, -/-, NI

Frontier spaceport installation.

1609.3 km in diameter. No atmosphere, no liquid present (vacc suits required on surface). Population 1,012 (permanent residents). Oligarchic government. Law Level 6 (most firearms prohibited, open carry strongly discouraged).

Tech Level 5: Carbine, rifle, pistol, SMG; Model/1 computers; Radio communications; ground cars; oil power.

Whitefall (0405):

B788654-5, -/N, A,NI

Good quality spaceport: Refined fuel available; annual overhaul maintenance available; shipyard capable of constructing non-starships present. Naval base present. 

11,345.11 km in diameter. Dense atmosphere. 80% liquid surface. Population 1,587,158. Feudal Technocracy government. Law Level 4 (strict military weapons prohibited).