Why I Made This Project
I enjoy going to libraries when I am visiting a city and I usually start by learning about the neighborhoods where they are located. I found a list of branches on the official MPL website, but it didn’t include the option to filter branches by contextual information like neighborhood or ZIP code. This projects allows someone to filter library branches by those criteria, view them on a map, and see a list of tabular data about them. Users with limited internet access have the option of saving or printing their filtered list for later use.
What I Learned
This map was a fun way to create a flexdashboard project that combines tabular and geographic data in a format in which users can easily interact on desktop and mobile devices. I was also able to gain some familiarity with Milwaukee’s neighborhoods and the city’s open data system.
Central Branch
When possible, I also like to visit the main branch of a city’s library system because they often have unique architectural features. Simple conditional logic was used to mark the Central Branch with a red star icon so it stands out on the map.
Library Data
Library data was retrieved from the Milwaukee OpenData website.
Geocoding
ZIP codes and additional metadata were retrieved using Jesse Cambon’s tidygeocoder package.
Inspiration
This project was inspired by Matt Dray’s crosstalk demonstration.
This map was created for demonstration purposes and based on the most recent available data at the time of production. Please consult your library branch for questions about days of operation and hours.