BAILERBailer

BAILER – the British Association for Information and Library Education and Research – are pleased to announce a competition to design an infographic illustrating the value of libraries and challenging the logic of closures. The three best entries will win £100 in Amazon vouchers.

Graphics might synthesise available public spending and library sector data for the UK and also draw on research. The type of information that could be displayed might cover:

• Council spending on UK libraries in relation to other services and the impact of cuts;
• Spending on libraries in the UK in comparison to other European countries;
• Evidence of value-added by information professionals;
• UK library use, perhaps highlighting that by marginalised groups;
• Lending statistics compared to visits overall and the uptake of new, non-traditional services, including audio and eBooks;
• Outcomes from literacy and related community programmes.

Possible sources of data:

• LIbValue Bibliography: http://libvalue.cci.utk.edu/ .
• Data.gov.uk: http://data.gov.uk/search/apachesolr_search/libraries, especially see http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ni-009-use-of-public-libraries
• LAMPOST Project: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dils/lisu/lampost.html
• CIPFA Public library Statistics http://www.cipfastats.net/ (site problem?)

All data sources used should be fully attributed. The focus should be UK libraries, although the competition is open to all nationalities.

Many infographic examples are available of the web for inspiration, for instance:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/
http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/40-useful-and-creative-infographics/

Please upload your infographic to Flickr, including the tag “bailercomp” and also send an e-mail to bailercomp@bailer.org.uk with a link to your graphic and your full address in the e-mail body.

The three best entries as judged by a BAILER panel will win £100 worth of Amazon gift vouchers. Competition closes Friday, March 18th. For any further queries please contact bailercomp@bailer.org.uk or post a comment.

Terms & Conditions

1. Multiple entries are allowed but a maximum of one prize per entrant will be awarded.
2. All data presented should be free from publication restrictions. Information should be fairly synthesised and represented.
3. Winners may be asked to make minor adjustments to their entries.
4. BAILER reserves the right to withhold prizes if entries are not felt to be of sufficient quality.