71 :: From Wikipedia to Google Spreadsheets to a Timemap
I’m mapping again!
At first, I thought I would map the branches of the Toronto Public Library from the Toronto Open Data Catalogue which provides all the locations as a KML file. But the dataset was missing something I really wanted to feature: what year each branch opened.
But the Wikipedia article on the branches of the Toronto Public Library did include such information and furthermore, puts it into a nice table. So I just needed a way to extract the table. And after a quick Google search, I found that Google Spreadsheets makes such table extraction super easy.
Ok. So now I have two tables. How to join them together? Sure – I *could* use this as an exercise to practice mySQL. But why not use another Google product instead? Google Fusion Tables has the ability to merge tables.
Now I have a lovely spreadsheet that I cut and paste entire columns from into this template so I can produce a TimeMap from the OKFN Timemapper.
Also: if you live in Toronto, please take a photo of the missing library branches from this list and upload them to Wikimedia.