Leveling Up Your Data With Google Visualization API

1.) Short Description: In libraries we are always looking for innovative ways to tell others the stories we learn from the data we analyze. In this interactive session, participants will work closely with one such tool: the Google Visualization API. Together we will examine the possibilities available to us with the API, with a substantial amount of the session devoted towards writing code with the API itself. Along the way we will connect what we are learning with how the API has been implemented into a Database Usage Tool at the University of Michigan - Dearborn, offering a practical example of how this API has been used in academic libraries.

2.) Session Format & Style: Make/Hack/Play Session

3.) Takeaways: Participants will be spending time developing Javascript code that uses Google's Visualization API, allowing them to learn introductory concepts about the API and giving them quick steps to start their own quest to build a data visualization tool. In addition, participants will be given a mapping handout that offers insight into design thinking, recommended data formatting tips, and planning worksheets for their data visualization tool. Finally, we hope to help participants build a "party of questmates" among fellow participants in the session to help support each other in their continued development beyond the conference session.

4.) Organization: Fully formed

5.) Contact: 

Tim Streasick

streatim@umich.edu

313.593.5567