Christy's Project Proposal

I was intrigued by the slides we saw Tuesday about library siting - in particular that four "classes" of people use libraries more often, i.e. the elderly, low-income, families w/children & students. I am interested in seeing if this claim is borne out by using mapping to get a visual picture of the situation. Statistics are rather dry. I'm hoping that by using census data and library use statistics for particular libraries and the populations that are near them/use them, I can find patterns that prove or disprove this idea, at least in the Madison area. For instance, if Alicia Ashman has high use, does the population that in theory 'belongs' to that library have a mix of any or all of those groups that would prove that claim? On the flip side, maybe there are areas of Madison that fit the profile but aren't served by a library in which case the map could be used to make a claim for a new branch. I'm hoping to use census data for the groups, although I am not sure whether it breaks out to students. As for library use statistics - I'm not sure if overall yearly use is already available or if I would need to get data from Barb. And of course I'll need a base map of the city and library locations.