Providing Library Support for Interactive Scientific and Biomedical Visualizations with Tableau

Abstract

Developing effective visualizations is crucial for understanding and communicating data in a variety of contexts. Tableau is an easy-to-use tool for creating customized, interactive visualizations. Although Tableau is often discussed in the context of business intelligence, it can also be used to create effective scientific and biomedical visualizations in the context of research, public health, and medical care. This article provides a basic introduction to Tableau’s uses and discusses the NIH Library’s experience with providing support for Tableau. Four case studies demonstrate the range of services that the Library offers, as well as providing examples of the many different applications for Tableau. The article also provides resources for learning Tableau and insights on developing a successful data visualization support service.

Keywords

• data visualization
• biomedical data visualization
• scientific data visualization
• data science
• Tableau
• library data services