Plot the locations of over 130 public bookcases in the Greater Atlanta Area. The main branch of this repository reflects the up-to-date source code and data for the R shiny app it produces.
In 2023, I noticed that many of the public bookcases in my area were not listed on the Little Free Library web map. I began recording longitude and latitude coordinates for the ones I discovered and cross-referencing them with the listings. The result is this dataset of 132 book boxes in the Greater Atlanta area.
With an interest in indicators and issues of health, education, safety, and socioeconomic inequity, I incorporated nationally normalized zip code estimates from the Child Opportunity Index (COI). The COI is a composite index of children's neighborhood opportunity, consisting of 3 major domains: Education (ED), Health and Environment (HE), and Social and Economic factors (SE). This app allows visualization of COI measures alongside the distribution of Atlanta's bookcases.
The /data directory contains the box locations and COI measures as .csv files, as well as a geojson encoding Georgia zip code spatial data.
The process_to_rds.R script converts these to .rds and .shp files, which are loaded directly to minimize pre-processing at app runtime.
Anyone can collect and submit data for incorporation in the map! It's as easy as standing front of a book box, opening your google maps app, and long-clicking on the position in front of you to get latitude and longitude coordinates. These can be copy-pasted and sent via email linked in the app, or the one associated with this GitHub profile.
The following people submitted coordinates to new book boxes. Thanks!
- Nishant Mohan