Case Study: Brooklyn Public Library saves time, money, and headcount with Tableau Software

Brooklyn Public Library saves time, money, and headcount with Tableau

Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), which serves Brooklyn’s 2.5 million residents with programs, collections, and public computers, was hampered by an outdated reporting setup and heavy reliance on consultants. Producing regular patron and kiosk reports was slow and error-prone—one administrator spent two weeks a month generating Crystal Reports—so leadership lacked timely, trustworthy insight to drive decisions.

BPL adopted Tableau, connecting a SQL Server data warehouse and blending other sources, training staff and publishing dashboards via Tableau Server and Public. The change created 15 dashboard authors, cut report time from two weeks to about an hour, enabled penny‑accurate financial reconciliation, reclaimed analyst capacity, expanded self‑service reporting across branches, and shifted the library toward faster, more accurate, and more engaging data‑driven decision making.

Brooklyn Public Library

Nissa Wibecan

Systems Administrator