Liz Lyon

Developments in research data management in academic libraries: Towards an understanding of research data service maturity

This article reports an international study of research data management (RDM) activities, services, and capabilities in higher education libraries. It presents the results of a survey covering higher education libraries in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK. The results indicate that libraries have provided leadership in RDM, particularly in advocacy and policy development. Service development is still limited, focused especially on advisory and consultancy services (such as data management planning support and data‐related training), rather than technical services (such as provision of a data catalog, and curation of active data). Data curation skills development is underway in libraries, but skills and capabilities are not consistently in place and remain a concern. Other major challenges include resourcing, working with other support services, and achieving “buy in” from researchers and senior managers. Results are compared with previous studies in order to assess trends and relative maturity levels. The range of RDM activities explored in this study are positioned on a “landscape maturity model,” which reflects current and planned research data services and practice in academic libraries, representing a “snapshot” of current developments and a baseline for future research.

Century-of-Information Research (CIR): A Strategy for Research and Innovation in the Century of Information

Abstract More data will be produced in the next five years than in the entire history of human kind, a digital deluge that marks the beginning of the Century of Information. Through a year‐long consultation with UK researchers, a coherent strategy has been developed, which will nurture Century‐of‐Information Research (CIR); it crystallises the ideas developed by the e‐Science Directors’ Forum Strategy Working Group. This paper is an abridged version of their latest report which can be found at: http://wikis.nesc.ac.uk/escienvoy/Century_of_Information_Research_Strategy which also records the consultation process and the affiliations of the authors. This document is derived from a paper presented at the Oxford e‐Research Conference 2008 and takes into account suggestions made in the ensuing panel discussion. The goals of the CIR Strategy are to facilitate the growth of UK research and innovation that is data and computationally intensive and to develop a new culture of ‘digital‐systems judgement’ that will equip research communities, businesses, government and society as a whole, with the skills essential to compete and prosper in the Century of Information. The CIR Strategy identifies a national requirement for a balanced programme of coordination, research, infrastructure, translational investment and education to empower UK researchers, industry, government and society. The Strategy is designed to deliver an environment which meets the needs of UK researchers so that they can respond agilely to challenges, can create knowledge and skills, and can lead new kinds of research. It is a call to action for those engaged in research, those providing data and computational facilities, those governing research and those shaping education policies. The ultimate aim is to help researchers strengthen the international competitiveness of the UK research base and increase its contribution to the economy. The objectives of the Strategy are to better enable UK researchers across all disciplines to contribute world‐leading fundamental research; to accelerate the translation of research into practice; and to develop improved capabilities, facilities and context for research and innovation. It envisages a culture that is better able to grasp the opportunities provided by the growing wealth of digital information. Computing has, of course, already become a fundamental tool in all research disciplines. The UK e‐Science programme (2001–06)—since emulated internationally—pioneered the invention and use of new research methods, and a new wave of innovations in digital‐information technologies which have enabled them. The Strategy argues that the UK must now harness and leverage its own, plus the now global, investment in digital‐information technology in order to spread the benefits as widely as possible in research, education, industry and government. Implementing the Strategy would deliver the computational infrastructure and its benefits as envisaged in the Science & Innovation Investment Framework 2004–2014 (July 2004), and in the reports developing those proposals. To achieve this, the Strategy proposes the following actions: 1. support the continuous innovation of digital‐information research methods; 2. provide easily used, pervasive and sustained e‐Infrastructure for all research; 3. enlarge the productive research community which exploits the new methods efficiently; 4. generate capacity, propagate knowledge and develop skills via new curricula; and 5. develop coordination mechanisms to improve the opportunities for interdisciplinary research and to make digital‐infrastructure provision more cost effective. To gain the best value for money strategic coordination is required across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. A coherent strategy is essential in order to establish and sustain the UK as an international leader of well‐curated national data assets and computational infrastructure, which is expertly used to shape policy, support decisions, empower researchers and to roll out the results to the wider benefit of society. The value of data as a foundation for wellbeing and a sustainable society must be appreciated; national resources must be more wisely directed to the collection, curation, discovery, widening access, analysis and exploitation of these data. Every researcher must be able to draw on skills, tools and computational resources to develop insights, test hypotheses and translate inventions into productive use, or to extract knowledge in support of governmental decision making. This foundation plus the skills developed will launch significant advances in research, in business, in professional practice and in government with many consequent benefits for UK citizens. The Strategy presented here addresses these complex and interlocking requirements.

Using participatory design and visual narrative inquiry to investigate researchers’ data challenges and recommendations for library research data services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on an information gathering study on users’ research data-related challenges and proposals for library research data services (RDS). This study probes how early career researchers visually conceptualize the research process in their disciplines, their self-reported research data challenges, and their recommendations for library RDS. Design/methodology/approach – Two focus group sessions were undertaken with a total of eight early career researchers. Adopting the visual narrative inquiry method, the participants were asked to sketch the general research process in their domain. The individuals’ illustrations of the research process were then used as the basis for reflecting on their data-related needs and potential RDS that would assist them during the research process. Findings – Participants presented a research process that was more personal and, in most cases, more imperfect than the research lifecycle models that academic libraries are increasingly usin...

Education for Real-World Data Science Roles (Part 2): A Translational Approach to Curriculum Development

This study reports on the findings from Part 2 of a small-scale analysis of requirements for real-world data science positions and examines three further data science roles: data analyst, data engineer and data journalist. The study examines recent job descriptions and maps their requirements to the current curriculum within the graduate MLIS and Information Science and Technology Masters Programs in the School of Information Sciences (iSchool) at the University of Pittsburgh. From this mapping exercise, model ‘course pathways’ and module ‘stepping stones’ have been identified, as well as course topic gaps and opportunities for collaboration with other Schools. Competency in four specific tools or technologies was required by all three roles (Microsoft Excel, R, Python and SQL), as well as collaborative skills (with both teams of colleagues and with clients). The ability to connect the educational curriculum with real-world positions is viewed as further validation of the translational approach being developed as a foundational principle of the current MLIS curriculum review process

Librarians in the Lab: Toward Radically Re-Engineering Data Curation Services at the Research Coalface

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study where students aspiring to professional library roles who need to understand diverse disciplinary research data practices are placed in a laboratory with domain researchers during an immersive module within graduate MLIS programs at the School of Information Sciences (iSchool), University of Pittsburgh. A qualitative analysis of evaluation commentary from faculty researchers and MLIS students demonstrates their positive bilateral learning experiences. The potential extension of the immersive model for the delivery of research data services directly to researchers at their point of need is explored and a connection made with the established concept of an informationist, as a medical library specialist working in a clinical setting. The re-engineering challenges for academic libraries in operationalizing the immersive model for research data services are articulated, together with the challenges for iSchools in building workforce capacity and capability for immersive team science.

Interoperability Across Digital Library Programmes? We Must Have QA!

This paper describes a digital library architecture and implementation that is configurable, extensible and dynamic in the way it presents content and in the services it provides. The design manifests itself as a network of modules that communicate in terms of XML messages. All modules characterize the functionality they implement in response to a “describe yourself” message, and can transform messages using XSLT to support different levels of configurability. Traditional library values such as backwards compatibility and multiplatform operation are combined with the ability to add new collections and services adaptively. The paper describes the new design and shows how it can be used to build four different digital library systems. We conclude by showing how the design fits existing interoperability frameworks.

Unpacking the “black box”: a preliminary study of visualizing humanists and social science scholars’ data and research processes

Due to the significant variations in their needs, attitudes, and practices toward their research, different scholars could have different research processes and interact with different kinds of data. We report the preliminary results of a qualitative study that examines how humanities and social science (H&SS) scholars interact with their data throughout the course of their research process. By conducting two focus group sessions with eight H&SS scholars, our results show that scholars indeed took different research patterns and thus interacted with distinctive data. The sketches produced in this study provide insights on future larger-scale focus group design, and also identify opportunities for an academic library or data service provider to support H&SS scholars’ research activities.

The people's heritage: Democratising our memory institutions

Evolving requirements from their users, increased technical capability, and access to new sources of funding are all playing a part in ensuring that our memory institutions change; sometimes beyond recognition. This paper explores some of the ways in which these institutions are changing, and questions the effect such changes are likely to have upon the institutions themselves, and upon those who use and work within them.