Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Statistical Analysis Packages For Libraries?

Posted by samzenpus on from the we-know-what-you-read-last-summer dept.

HolyLime writes "I'm a librarian in a small academic library. Increasingly the administration is asking our department to collect data on various aspects of our activities, class taught, students helped, circulation, collection development, and so on. This is generating a large stream of data that is making it difficult, and time consuming, to qualitatively analyze. For anything complicated, I currently use excel, or an analogous spreadsheet program. I am aware of statistical analysis programs, like SPSS or SAS. Can anyone give me recommendations for statistical analysis programs? I also place emphasis on anything that is open source and easy to implement since it will allow me to bypass the convoluted purchase approval process."

1 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Re:R or WEKA ... Wait, What Exactly Are You Doing? by CmdrPony · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ... you're going to have to get down and dirty with some high level programming (scripting) ... There's no user interface in this suggestion ...Their interface occasionally improves too ... These (probably) require an intermediate data transformation step ...Maybe your problems are simple enough to just need a good macro writer to tackle ...

    He said he wants something that is easy to implement, and only reason he is going with open source is because then he doesn't have to ask for purchase approval. Which IMO is a really stupid reason and will hurt in the long run - it's insane to take worse software just because you don't want to ask your boss if it's okay to buy this one.

    I also place emphasis on anything that is open source and easy to implement since it will allow me to bypass the convoluted purchase approval process.

    Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you want good support and easy implementation, you have to look for normal paid-for solutions. Besides, open source is not synonym for free. This is especially true with specialized software or something you want good support for. Open source just means you get the code aswell, so you can implement your own additions (without use of plugins) or change it.

    But unless you get an product from a company that is spending money to develop it, you never get good software and good support. No one can make both because everything in this world costs money, and developers have to live too. Open source and free software model works well for the likes of Google and Firefox because the developments get paid by money made with advertising. Statistical analysis software, and other specialized software is a different matter.