Open data privacy playbook: a guide for cities

https://cyber.harvard.edu/publications/2017/02/opendataprivacyplaybook

Cities today collect and store a wide range of data that may contain sensitive or identifiable information about residents. As cities embrace open data initiatives, more of this information is available to the public. While releasing data has many important benefits, sharing data comes with inherent risks to individual privacy: released data can reveal information about individuals that would otherwise not be public knowledge. In recent years, open data such as taxi trips, voter registration files, and police records have revealed information that many believe should not be released.

Effective data governance is a prerequisite for successful open data programs. The goal of this document is to codify responsible privacy-protective approaches and processes that could be adopted by cities and other government organizations that are publicly releasing data. Our report is organized around four recommendations:

• Conduct risk-benefit analyses to inform the design and implementation of open data programs. 
• Consider privacy at each stage of the data lifecycle: collect, maintain, release, delete. 
• Develop operational structures and processes that codify privacy management widely throughout the City. 
• Emphasize public engagement and public priorities as essential aspects of data management programs. 

Curating Research Data - in two volumes

ACRL has posted the open access editions of the two-volume set titled Curating Research Data on their website at http://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/booksanddigitalresources/booksmonographs/catalog/publications! 

Edited by Lisa R. Johnston:

• Volume 1 is a traditional edited volume with 12 chapters and explores the variety of reasons, motivations, and drivers for why data curation services are needed in the context of academic and disciplinary data repository efforts.  
• Volume 2 is a how-to handbook of data curation techniques presented in 8 steps (from receive to reuse) and includes 30 case studies written by practitioners at institutional and disciplinary data repositories. 

The Data Librarian’s Handbook

Facet Publishing have announced the release of The Data Librarian’s Handbook by Robin Rice and John Southall.

This new book, written by two data librarians with over 30 years’ experience, unpicks the everyday role of the data librarian and offers practical guidance on how to collect, curate and crunch data for economic, social and scientific purposes.

Interest in data has been growing in recent years. Support for this peculiar class of digital information – its use, preservation and curation, and how to support researchers’ production and consumption of it in ever greater volumes to create new knowledge, is needed more than ever. Many librarians and information professionals are finding their working life is pulling them toward data support or research datamanagement but lack the skills required.

Covering everything from handling, managing and curating data; data literacy; research data management policies; data management plans; data repositories; confidential or sensitive data; open scholarship and open science, The DataLibrarian’s Handbook is a must-read for all new entrants to the field, LIS students and working professionals.

The authors said, “Our aim is to offer an insider’s view of data librarianship as it is today, with plenty of practical examples and advice. At times we link this to wider academic and research agendas and scholarly communication trends, while grounding these thoughts back in the everyday work of data librarians and other information professionals”.

Robin Rice is Data Librarian at EDINA and Data Library, an organisation providing data services for research and education based in Information Services at the University of Edinburgh.

John Southall is Data Librarian for the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford. He is based in the Social Science Library and is subject consultant for Economics, Sociology and Social Policy & Intervention.

The Data Librarian's Handbook | Jan 2017 | 192pp | paperback: 9781783300471 | £54.95 | hardback: 9781783300983 | £89.95 | eBook: 9781783301836| £54.95

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web:www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.

The research librarian of the future: data scientist and co-investigator

There remains something of a disconnect between how research librarians themselves see their role and its responsibilities and how these are viewed by their faculty colleagues. Jeannette Ekstrøm, Mikael Elbaek, Chris Erdmann and Ivo Grigorov imagine how the research librarian of the future might work, utilising new data science and digital skills to drive more collaborative and open scholarship. Arguably this future is already upon us but institutions must implement a structured approach to developing librarians’ skills and services to fully realise the benefits.

See blog post: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/12/14/the-research-librarian-of-the-future-data-scientist-and-co-investigator/