Where is All the Book Data?

I want to talk about data today. Libraries have gotten very good at using data to help us make decisions and craft our collections. So many of us now rely on it.

It is getting to be so important that systems, like mine, RAILS, have hired entire Data Analysis Teams. You can click here to see what RAILS has done to make data analysis easier for our member libraries. 

I began in public libraries at the start of this century, which means I have watched as the card catalog was replaced by OPAC systems. And I have seen the online catalogs not only take over, but improve, both in terms of the user experience and in how easy they are for us to use to collect and sort data. 

As a trustee I have also seen how useful data can be to communicate with our citizens as well. As organizations funded by public funds, we have been proactive in providing as much open access to our data as possible. In fact, public libraries are going out of our way to get more data out there so that the tax payers can more easily understand what a great deal the public library actually is.

But book publishing, is the exact opposite. As we all expect more access to transparent data, the publishing world has become less open. Even how a "best seller" is calculated has become a trade secret. 

But with libraries leading the way by publicizing their checkout data and with the success of the Panorama Project* which provides data-informed insight on public libraries and their impact on book discovery, author brand development, and sales, the public and professional outcry for more transparent book data is growing. Libraries have been successful at showing our patrons how our checkouts save them money AND at showing publishers how we help make them more money.

And yet, the publishers are digging in for more and more secrecy.

Thankfully, the Post45 Data Collective has stepped up. Click here to read a report from Public Books. Here is a pull out quote that opens the article.

Culture industries increasingly use our data to sell us their products. It’s time to use their data to study them. To that end, we created the Post45 Data Collective, an open access site that peer reviews and publishes literary and cultural data. This a partnership between the Data Collective and Public Books, a series called Hacking the Culture Industries, brings you data-driven essays that change how we understand audiobooks, bestselling books, streaming music, video games, influential literary institutions such as the New York Timesand the New Yorker, and more. Together, they show a new way of understanding how culture is made, and how we can make it better. 

—Laura McGrath and Dan Sinykin

Everyone in the book world needs more accurate, open, and real time book data. In a world where every other industry is getting more transparent, the lack of transparency in publishing is troubling.

I am proud of how libraries have led on this issues [the article even mentions that], but I hope publishers follow our lead.

Please click though and learn more about this issue from the Public Books report. 

*Full disclosure, I was involved with Panorama Project when it first began. Click here for all of my posts about it.