Music in Space and Time: Using Data Visualization to Understand a Local Music Collection

Abstract

Collaboration between the music librarian and data librarian led to these critical questions: What does the intersection between special collections and data management look like? How can libraries use catalogue data to create engaging visualization tools for scholarly investigation? How might we build the profile of music collections for a wider audience?

In this session we will discuss the steps we took to use library catalogue data in the context of an interactive map and timeline. The catalogue data describes the Saskatchewan Music Collection, a local music collection located at the Education & Music Library, University of Saskatchewan. The collection includes primarily sound recordings and sheet music with a connection to the province, dating from the early 1900s to the current day. Creating a visualization tool allows us to find evidence of historical narratives and themes within unique or rare library materials.

We will speak to some of the challenges faced during the data clean-up process using OpenRefine, the steps taken for geocoding and creating an interactive map in ArcGIS, and the considerations for setting up a data management strategy for this project. A preliminary look at the visualizations will be presented as well as a discussion surrounding the kinds of visualizations that would be appealing for music collections from a discovery perspective.