Charles K. Humphrey

Preserving research data

Granting ownership rights to data, as if it were private property, only limits data access without ensuring the benefits of researcher precedence or the rewards for good data collection.

Collaborative Training in Statistical and Data Library Services: Lessons from the Canadian Data Liberation Initiative.

ABSTRACT New technology and knowledge push organizations to upgrade and improve the skills of their staff. Paying for professional develop programming is a common way of providing continuing education. This article describes a collaborative training program introduced to develop baseline competencies in Canadian academic libraries to support data services. In conjunction with an initiative between Statistics Canada and sixty-six Canadian universities, a data literacy program has delivered thirty workshops over a seven-year period training librarians how to provide services for statistics and data. A cost-sharing arrangement keeps these training expenses to a minimum for individual universities.

Is it working? Assessing the value of the Canadian Data Liberation Initiative

This paper examines the assessment of the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), a data consortium, from the perspective of the programs functionality and fulfilment of stakeholder objectives. Two models are described which help assess how well the program succeeded in doing what it was intended to do, and which provide a measure of the programs impact. This study presents correlational evidence between the volume of research outcomes and the increased access to National Population Health Survey data through the DLI. It is hoped that some of the experiences in this evaluation of DLI might be beneficial in assessing other non‐standard programs.