1. Making the most of your data:
Duke Data & GIS Services
Angela Zoss
Data Visualization Coordinator
November 20, 2013
http://library.duke.edu/data

2. Data & GIS Services
• Perkins 226 computing cluster
• Walk-in consultations
• Data collections
• Workshops
• Online instructional materials

3. Brandaleone Family Center for
Data and GIS Services
• Perkins 226
• Open whenever the library
is open
• 12 high-powered Dell
workstations
• 3 Bloomberg financial
workstations
• Various data analysis, GIS,
and visualization software
packages available
http://library.duke.edu/data/about/lab.html

4. Walk-in Consulting
…or by appointment:
askdata@duke.edu
http://library.duke.edu/data/about/schedule.html

5. Workshops
• Typically toward the beginning of the semester
• 1-2 hours, often hands-on
• Various topics, including Data Processing/Statistical
Software Packages, GIS/Mapping, Visualization
http://library.duke.edu/data/news
For announcements, sign up for our listserv:
https://lists.duke.edu/sympa/subscribe/dgs-announce
Or watch our blog and twitter accounts:
http://blogs.library.duke.edu/data/, @duke_data, @duke_vis

6. SUPPORT AREAS

7. Support Area: Finding Data
• Browse our curated collections list at:
http://library.duke.edu/data/collections/
(includes data sets specially licensed for Duke)
• Email askdata@duke.edu and we’ll do some research
for you!
• Guides for special types of data
– Census
http://guides.library.duke.edu/content.php?pid=32369
– Housing
http://library.duke.edu/data/courses/housing_foreclosures.html
– Comtrade
http://guides.library.duke.edu/comtrade

8. Support Area: Storing Data
• Newest support area
• Storage & Compute Environments Comparison:
http://goo.gl/fGflCB

9. Support Area: Managing Data
• Data Management Guide:
http://library.duke.edu/data/guides/data-management/index.html
• DMP Tool @ Duke:
http://blogs.library.duke.edu/data/2013/07/12/data-managementplanning-advice-dmptool-duke/

10. Support Area: Analyzing Data
• Available data analysis software packages:
– Open Refine (also offer a workshop)
– R (also offer a workshop)
– Stata (also offer a workshop)
– SAS
– SPSS
• Additional workshop on text analysis techniques
• Walk-in consulting for real-time support
http://library.duke.edu/data/guides/

11. Support Area: Visualizing Data
http://guides.library.duke.edu/datavis/

12. Support Area: Visualizing Data
• GIS (Geographic Information Systems) support
– Workshops on ArcGIS and other online mapping tools
– High powered computers with GIS software
– Expert help from Data & GIS Staff
• Visualization support, more broadly
– Workshops on Tableau Public and best practices for
charts, graphs, posters, etc.

13. DATA TIPS
See especially:
https://github.com/veltman/learninglunches/tree/master/datahygiene

14. Data Tips: Make a Copy
• Never process the only copy of your data
• Keep backups – onsite and offsite

15. Data Tips: Take Note
• Keep track of the processing steps you’ve taken
• If possible, use tools that have commands or scripts
• Document the reasons behind your decisions

16. Data Tips: Check Your Sources
• Garbage in, garbage out
• Level of analysis

17. Data Tips: Easy Come, Easy Go
• Be wary of Excel
– Volatile (easy to accidentally introduce errors)
– Deceptively opaque
– Limited validation capabilities
– Better for simple data structures
• Tips
– Save often, multiple copies
– Document processing steps (manually if necessary)
– Introduction some validation checks (formulas,
visualizations)
– Switch to database?

18. Visualization Tips
In a nutshell:
Simplify (but not the axis)
• Reduce color
• Focus on major trends
• Consistent style/format/reference system
• Do extra calculations so the users won’t have to
http://guides.library.duke.edu/topten

19. SHAMELESS PLUG

20. 2014 Student Data Visualization Contest
http://bit.ly/viscontest14 | http://bit.ly/visgallery
• Open to all Duke students
• Submit any type of
visualization
• Deadline January 19
• 2014 Awards:
– Amazon gift cards (up to $250)
– public exhibits
– posters

21. QUESTIONS? SUGGESTIONS?
angela.zoss@duke.edu
http://twitter.com/duke_vis