Introduction:

This project focuses on visualising the number and rough location of a certain set of books. This set being books printed in Europe, and after the 15th Century Book Trade, have ended up in the US today. These book edition records were taken from CERL’s ISTC Database.


Map:

Every circle in the ‘Stacked’, ‘Random’ and ‘Spiral’ map layers represents a holding institution. The ‘By State’ map layer shows a circle per state, its size indicating the number of holding institutions within that state, which is also displayed when the circle is clicked.

The colours of the circle markers are based on the number of books of that holding institution:

Clicking on a circle/holding institution will display the following information in the box next to the map:

This map does not show specific, accurate coordinates for every holding institution. Each holding institution is mapped to a state. The coordinates used to display the circle markers are mostly randomly offset from this base coordinate at roughly the centre of every state.

Any markers and purple coloured circles (#3f007d) are only to more easily identify either: a selected holding institution, or the result set of a search from the search bar.


Search:

Users may search by either: Holding Institution or ISTC Number.

Selecting a holding institution from the dropdown menu shows the same information as clicking on its specific circle marker on a map layer (see above in Map section).

Selecting a ISTC Number displays the names of all the holding institutions with a copy of that book, and the total of these holding institutions. Markers are created for all these holding institutions for a clearer visual of them.


Show/Hide Table:

The Show/Hide Table toggle button displays the table, with relevant portions of the data that created the markers on the map.


Download as CSV link:

Users may download the table as a CSV file. It’s the same format as the table, but with a new line for each book/ISTC number.


Extras (More Useful Info):

Holding Institutions with less than 20 books are displayed by a donut chart, with a slice for each book with its ISTC number labelled. Over 20 books, the ISTC numbers are displayed as a list.

Layering the maps will show multiple circle markers for the same holding institutions, but it may be useful to layer the ‘By State’ and ‘Spiral’ map layers, to more easily visualise the size of holding institutions in certain states.

The grouping of holding institutions by state on the map may not be accurate; fuzzy matching was used to determine states of holding institutions.