Unsub Extender: A Python-based web application for visualizing Unsub data

Abstract

This article introduces Unsub Extender, a free tool to help libraries analyze their Unsub data export files. Unsub is a collection development dashboard that gathers and forecasts journal-level usage metrics to provide academic libraries with deeper measurements than traditional cost-per-use. Unsub gives libraries richer and more nuanced data to analyze their subscriptions, but it does not include a way to easily visualize the complex and interrelated data points it provides. Unsub Extender (https://unsubextender.lib.iastate.edu) is a free Python-based web application that takes an Unsub export file and automates the creation of interactive plots and visualizations. The tool loads with example data to explore, and users upload their specific Unsub file to quickly populate the pre-made plots with actual data. Graphs are interactive, live-updating, and support zoom, click-and-drag, and hover. Filters are specified through sliders to model scenarios and focus on areas of interest. A drop-down menu allows users to change a journal’s decision status, and graphs update automatically. After evaluating journals, users can export the modified data set to save their decisions. Unsub Extender proposes best practice in analyzing the increasingly common Unsub export file. It simplifies the analysis, eliminates duplication of effort, and enables libraries worldwide to make better, more data-driven decisions.