Brian Westra

Developing an Approach for Data Management Education: A Report from the Data Information Literacy Project

This paper describes the initial results from the Data Information Literacy (DIL) project designed to identify the educational needs of graduate students across a variety of science disciplines and respond with effective educational interventions to meet those needs. The DIL project consists of five teams in disparate disciplines from four academic institutions in the United States. The project teams include a data librarian, a subject-specialist or information literacy librarian, and a faculty member representing a disciplinary group of students. Interviews with the students and faculty members present a detailed snapshot of graduate student needs in data management education. Following our study, educational programs addressing identified needs will be delivered in the fall of 2012 and spring of 2013. Our findings from the project interviews are analyzed here, with a preview of the training approaches that will be taken by the five teams.