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.