Within the SPL database there exists an issue in the relationship among Bibliography Numbers, Item Numbers, and Bar Codes. Namely, one bibliography may have a number of items associated with (all with the same checkout count...which is impossible). At the same time, these different item numbers all have unique bar codes with different checkout counts associated with them. In a sense, the database presents books that are being pulled in two contrasting directions depending on what data we use as a lens to see the books through. This visualization aims to represent this break in the system and the chaos is creates.

select

*

from

  spl3.x_markHirsch,

  spl3.x_oneBibManyItem

where

  spl3.x_markHirsch.bibNumber = spl3.x_oneBibManyItem.bibNumber

Initial thoughts on how to represent the "Bi-Polar" books in a way that shows they are being pulled in multiple directions. Using a sphere as an arbitrary container for the data, books would populate the center of the sphere. Those books were Bi-Polar (shared a bibliography number but contrasting items numbers) would be connected to each pole of the sphere.

The resulting data visualization demonstrates the split that exists for these Bi-Polar books. The books populate the middle of the sphere and are mapped according to item number (x-axis) and bibliography number (y-axis). Lines are then drawn from those books that contain contradictions in their data to the two poles that represent the contradictions.

 

All work is developed within Processing
Source Code + Data