Today’s libraries provide online access millions of bibliographic records. Librarians and re-searchers require tools that allow them to manage and understand these enormous data sets. Most libraries only offer textual interfaces for searching and browsing their holdings. The re-sulting lists are difficult to navigate and do not allow users to get a general overview. Further-more, data providers such as OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) are trying to enrich bib-liographic databases with semantically meaningful structures which are essentially lost when represented within a list-based interface.

Visualizations provide a means to overcome these difficulties. Graphical representations provide quick access to bibliographic data, facilitate the browsing and identification of relevant metadata, and provide a quick overview of the coverage of libraries. The fields of Information Visualization and Visual Analytics within Computer Science develop computer-supported, in-teractive, visual representations which allow users to extract meaning from large and hetero-geneous data sets. While such visual techniques have become common practice in the sciences, they are little employed by libraries, despite similar increases in available data.

https://www.esciencecenter.nl/project/glammap

• Netherlands

It aims to provide quick access to bibliographic data, facilitate the browsing and identification of relevant metadata, and provide a quick overview of the coverage of libraries.