Data visualization as a research support service in academic libraries: an investigation of world-class universities

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the data visualization services (DVS) provided online by the academic libraries of world-class universities. Thirty library websites from the top 100 universities listed in the QS World University Rankings 2021 were selected for this study. The university library websites were examined and were visited many times for gathering data. The results obtained showed that DVS can be divided into five aspects: information, services, training, tools and software, and information resources. Most libraries (93.3%) offered data visualization tools and software such as Tableau, R, Excel, Gephi, and Plotly. Twenty-six libraries (86.67%) provided information resources related to data visualization such as textbooks, data sources, external links to e-resources, and blogs. Moreover, 80% of the libraries offered DVS to the university community through their webpages. The findings of this study can help academic libraries improve DVS and draw the attention of libraries worldwide toward providing DVS in the future.