Data Board How To #1

Are you like me? Might be considered Tech Savvy by others but more than a little nervous with Excel? Silly, I know.

Step one to making a data board ... a bar graph of checkouts by grade level. You will need your monthly statistics (however you might get those ... can't really help you there because all I've ever worked with is SIRSI and I still call for help on setting up the reports!).

I used Google because I could enter my data here. Isn't that nice and clean and not scary?

You do have to have an account with Google for this to work. If you use gmail you've already go the access. If you don't ... maybe think about signing up? ;]

Of course when you go to the link you will see something that looks more like this. And I just realized I forgot to get a screen shot of one earlier step. Click on "File" and "Make a copy" first!

And I can hear many of you. You're asking "Where is the nice not scary looking form?" Click on Form and choose "Go to Live Form." A new window will open.

Enter your numbers. Hit Submit! See how the spreadsheet is still there?

So now go back to your spreadsheet. Click and highlight on the B column rows 1 & 2 and hold it over to the H column 1 & 2 (or I or J if you add PreK or Parents/Community Members).
Once you have those highlighted click on the little graph icon here.

This window will pup up. Choose the bar graph for this particular exercise. (If you are a math genius and you think up good uses for the other ones? PLEASE SHARE! Do you even know how long it took me to think through and decide "which kind of graph for what kind of data"?

Then click on "Insert."

Now see that little arrow? Click on that and choose "Move to own sheet." That might just be my preference but I preferred to not have the spreadsheet behind me. Then click on "Advanced Edit." 

This is where you can play around with the graph title and axis labels.

Then I choose to "Save Image."

If you want to print it bigger than a regular 8X11 there are all sorts of sites online to enlarge and "tile" the printing (ie each page will be like a fourth of the image and you tape it together). Poke around and you should find one that you can reach past your school filter.

Is this helpful at all? You know this is as much "If I can explain it to someone else I'll truly have mastered it" as anything. NO  EXPERT HERE! ;]
Give me some time and I'll work up some other ones. Maybe ... a pie graph showing the percentages of total checkouts from Easy, Fiction, and Dewey? And maybe a line graph showing how busy the library is on different days (or hours of the day)? I did a pictograph of my usual tasks during the day ... but that was in Graph Club. And it was almost a total guess because my ability to keep track of hours spent in a week is not necessarily great.

I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS ... DON'T BECOME A SLAVE TO DATA GATHERING. IT'S SO NOT WORTH THAT. And stats can be manipulated and so only tell a part of the story. But a little info can be a helpful thing!




Here's my first post on a data board.