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/ 

COAR Research Data Management survey results

In September 2016, COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) launched a Research Data Management (RDM) Interest Group to help the community expand their operations to support RDM. This group will provide a forum for discussion about managing research data, identify best practices and strategies, and support capacity building for RDM in the repository community.

RDM is wide ranging and there are already many organizations active in this area. The aim of COAR’s work is to promote and articulate the role of research institutions in providing access to research data and to help address the challenges of RDM for the repository community.

See the results of research data management survey, undertaken in December 2016

The COAR Research Data Management Interest Group has identified the following activities for 2016-2018:

1. Webinars
2. Develop an assessment framework to help institutions evaluate data repository systems
3. Undertake a brief survey of RDM activities within the COAR membership
4. Identify and link to key training material and resources
5. Share collection policies for RDM in repositories
6. Recommend metadata standards for research data sets

https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/repository-content/rda-interest-group-the-long-tail-of-research-data/

A Selection from The MET’s Public Domain Collection, Now Free from All Restrictions

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/a-selection-from-the-mets-public-domain-collection/

Ever since The Public Domain Review began we’ve long harboured fantasies about the Metropolitan Museum joining the growing ranks of those institutions (The Getty, New York Public Library, and Rijksmuseum, among others) who have opened up their digital copies of public domain works, making them free from all restrictions on use. Now, after a statement made last week, The MET have done just that — making all digital copies of their incredible public domain collection available under a CC0 license and in high resolution. While included in the vast lot of more than 200,000 images is a wonderful selection of the well known — Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, etc. — we present here our highlights from the perhaps lesser known corners (though we couldn’t resist sneaking in a Paul Klee). This is the product of a casual morning’s browse in which we could only get through the first 6,000 — that’s not even 3% — so we highly encourage you to jump in yourselves and make use of their slick and very comprehensive filtering system. And if that wasn’t enough, many of the pieces are accompanied by curatorial commentary offering the stories behind the works. Treasures await!

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/a-selection-from-the-mets-public-domain-collection/

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/reining-your-metadata-help-archivist

A wonderful simple post that would be useful for researchers who know they need to do metadata but have not quite worked out how yet.

Reining in Your Metadata with Help from an Archivist

Advice for organizing your research materials.

By 

Heather VanMouwerik

 

November 13, 2016

0 COMMENTS

 

Heather VanMouwerik is a Ph.D. candidate in Russian History at the 

University of California, Riverside. Follow her on Twitter @hvanmouwerik or 

check out her website.

 

 

Every book we read, every source we mine, and every number we collect has a history, has a life that precedes us and will continue long after we are gone. It is easy to forget this when we are frantically collecting materials for our dissertation. This legacy is rich but, in the hustle-and-bustle of research trips, exam prep, and writing, it is often neglected or even forgotten.

 

One of the most important parts of building an archive is capturing this legacy by recording an item’s dimensions, condition, material composition, origin, and provenance. In so doing, an archivist generates a vast amount of metadata, or information about an item irrespective of its content. Not only is this information useful in categorizing and storing the item, it also enriches the context of the archived item for researchers and facilitates use of the collection as a whole.

Metadata, though, isn’t reserved for the hallowed halls (or cold, windowless basements) of an archive. It is also a vital part of any researcher’s personal database.

Take a moment to review the material you have collected for your dissertation or other long-term project. How is it organized? ... Finish reading

Does my data look good in this? Exploring research data management in the creative arts

On January 18th there was a Jisc-funded workshop on ‘Does my data look good in this? Exploring research data management in the creative arts.’

For everyone who may be interested in this area, there is a ‘virtual goody bag’ at the following link: https://vads.ac.uk/kultur2group/projects/datalookgood/bag.html

This includes: presentations, handouts/activities, video clips of arts researchers, and links to the Jisc projects mentioned.