Data Literacy: A User's Guide

by David L. Herzog

A practical, skill-based introduction to data analysis and literacy  We are swimming in a world of data, and this handy guide will keep you afloat while you learn to make sense of it all. In Data A User's Guide, David Herzog, a journalist with a decade of experience using data analysis to transform information into captivating storytelling, introduces students and professionals to the fundamentals of data literacy, a key skill in today’s world. Assuming the reader has no advanced knowledge of data analysis or statistics, this book shows how to create insight from publicly-available data through exercises using simple Excel functions. Extensively illustrated, step-by-step instructions within a concise, yet comprehensive, reference will help readers identify, obtain, evaluate, clean, analyze and visualize data. A concluding chapter introduces more sophisticated data analysis methods and tools including database managers such as Microsoft Access and MySQL and standalone statistical programs such as SPSS, SAS and R. 

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2015

Reviews

[Natarajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot to like in this book, aimed at journalism students new to finding and using data. Lots of hands-on examples using Excel and other tools to clean and analyze data sets. Good section on finding offline government data and preparing to file FOIA requests. I read this to get back into beginner's mind for an open data literacy training volunteer opportunity, and feel pretty satisfied with what I got out of it for that purpose.