Infographics and Mining PEW

PEW Presentation:
Rainie, L. (2014, April 9). Millennials and Libraries [Slide Presentation]. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/09/millennials-and-libraries/

I have made infographics for several classes in the Library Science program, but have not had much formal learning related to infographics. This opportunity to learn more about infographics was very exciting, because I feel that infographics can be very effective as learning tools. As defined by expert Alberto Cairo, infographics are a way to visually represent of qualitative and/or quantitative information. He likens some infographics to “nice looking posters” in which the designer simply includes numbers or words without creating any new knowledge. Cairo says in order to truly be effective, infographics must show a deeper analysis of data to let readers broaden their understanding of the issue being discussed. The visual representation of patterns and connections in data are key elements of an effective infograph. Cairo defines the job of the infographics designer as organizing information so that patterns become evident, with the goal of saving readers time and effort in interpreting data. Finally, Cairo cautions designers to be purposeful in the types of graphs and visuals they use in the infographics, and provides some considerations for planning a good infographics.

I also took a lot of meaning from the TED Talk by David McCandless called The Beauty of Data Visualization. In this presentation, McCandless demonstrates how data patterns can be presented in infographics by sharing multiple visualizations of data. During his presentation, McCandless compares data visualization to a clearing in the jungle; as people are overloaded with information, data visualization is a mental relief. Essentially, he feels that making information understandable is the main benefit infographics. I absolutely agree and feel that this is I highly recommend watching this video, located at: https://youtu.be/5Zg-C8AAIGg. The podcast, TED talk video, and other resources were extremely helpful in guiding me to make an infographic for a PEW research article that I read.

In order to design my infographic, I explored three different programs: Infogram, Piktochart, and Easelly. I have used Piktochart for past assignments and wanted to try something different for this product. I found Easelly a bit easier to use than Infogram, so I went with Easelly for this assignment. Easelly has a lot of free templates and features, and customizing the infographics on their site is very easy. There were several tutorials available on YouTube to help me understand the basics of Easelly as well.

 As I was exploring the PEW Internet and American Life Project website, I found a presentation called “Teens and Libraries in Today’s Digital World.” This presentation contains a lot of interesting data that is relevant for school and public librarians, as well as educators in general. I was surprised to learn that today’s teens read as much or more than adults. Considering teens are “plugged in” to social media for a large chunk of time each day, it surprised me that they have time (and interest) to read more than any adult age group except those above age 50. I was also surprised to see that so many people believe that the digital environment will change teens for the worse as they grow into adulthood. Teachers seem to be embracing digital tools and understand the importance of information literacy, but many still believe that our digital society is creating troublesome behaviors and even changing the way brains function for the worse. After viewing the presentation and reflecting on the information, I began looking for patterns and correlations in the data, and planning on how to represent it in my infographic. Below is my infographic:
There are many possibilities for infographic use in schools, from staff presentations to data reports. I am the most excited about the possibility of having my students create infographics, and after gaining more familiarity and confidence with the topic, I am planning to try them in my classroom this year. I think students would benefit from creating infographics during research, and as a librarian I can present this technology tool to teachers for use in their curriculum.

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