Information visualization is a rapidly growing field that is emerging from research in human-computer interaction, computer science, graphics, visual design, psychology, and business methods. It is increasingly applied as a critical component in scientific research, digital libraries, data mining, financial data analysis, market studies, manufacturing production control, and drug discovery. This text looks at how ideas evolve and spread, based on the experiences and innovations of a leading research laboratory. It collects 37 of the key papers on information visualization from the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). Celebrating the lab's twentieth anniversary, it presents a coherent body of work from a respected community that has had many success stories with its research and commercial spin-offs.