Management of Data Collections

Data Collections
Bernadette Duffy and Abraham de Jesus
LIBR 580
Louise Broadley
October 5, 2011

What are Data Collections?
Data from surveys, opinion polls, climate data
Numeric data in machine-readable form
To make use of the data files need Codebooks and other supporting files

Data Lifecyclefrom DataOne https://www.dataone.org/content/education

Libraries and Data Collections
Important in academic and special libraries
Used by researchers and policy analysts
Academic libraries starting to get involved in the preservation of research data from own institution

UBC Library Data Serviceshttp://data.library.ubc.ca/

Data suppliers - UBC
Statistics Canada http://www.statcan.gc.ca/Canadian Census, labour, health, income, trade
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/ Opinion polls
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan http://data.library.ubc.ca/gen/icpsr.htmlSocial Sciences data

abacus

abacus - data set Part 1

abacus - data set Part 2

Data file

Challenge - Cost
Strategies to reduce cost for subscription data sets
Collaborative purchase with several departments (UC Berkeley)
University consortium (UBC, SFU, UVic, UNBC combined to form BC Research Libraries’ Data Services consortium – abacus http://abacus.library.ubc.ca/

Challenge - Selection
Decisions are based on
Collection policy
Knowledge of what is available
Understanding user need
Cost
Individual patron need
If the data would be useful to multiple users

Challenge - Supporting Access
Make visible in Library Catalogue.
Convert file formats for use in statistical programs
Outreach / education in use of data collection and statistical tools
Workshops on data literacy
Create a Data Lab
Become embedded in course requiring use of data collections

Infrastructure
Data sets can be highly variable in size.
This creates certain infrastructural challenges for storage, institution’s system, and the institution itself.

Storage
Scalability: “the ability of a system, network, or process, to handle growing amounts of work in a graceful manner or its ability to be enlarged to accommodate that growth.” (Wikipedia)
Location: Does your institution expect to host the data produced by researchers at that institution?

Systems Support
Network: Can the network handle downloading of large datasets?
Hardware: Can the systems support computation over disparate data sets?
Software: Do you have statistical programs (like SPSS or R) available for your users?
Flexibility: Can your system handle the wide variety of data formats, sizes, and uses?
Example of a good system: http://www.devinfo.info/genderinfo/

UN Gender Info

Institutional Support
Workflows: Can your data collections be integrated into the larger collections management framework?
Faculty Partnerships: Will faculty work with the library to create data management plans?
Mandate: Does your institution consider data collections a priority?

Preservation
Best practices for data preservation mean that preservation concerns enter in at the earliest point in the data management cycle: creation.

Criteria for Preservation
Obligation
Value
Uniqueness
Verification
Other Cultural Reasons

Metadata
Plagued by a lack of standards.
No international metadata standard for data sets.
Needs to give enough context for the data to be understandable.
No clear citation practice has emerged for data sets.
Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)

Wrap-Up
What is a data collection? A collection of the data resulting from research.
They have unique challenges for selection, access, infrastructure, and preservation.
Data Curation is an up and coming field in librarianship.
Librarians are uniquely poised to be involved in the recent surge of interest in data.

Management of Data Collections

by abedejesus

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 3

Statistics