This presentation will describe the MU Love Data Week, which took place in 2018 and 2019. This is an international event, with similar initiatives taking place in different countries worldwide. The aim is to gather data users and interested parties together to discuss the use of and possibilities for data, particularly open data. MU Library sought to bring together those with expertise and knowledge in the data area from within the library, the university and nationally, including external speakers from government, business and academia. They shared their knowledge with the campus community via a series of talks, exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops. Similar to Open Access Week, the purpose of the Love Data Week event is to raise awareness and build a community to engage on topics related to research data management, sharing, preservation, reuse and library-based research data services. In addition, it is an ideal opportunity to promote the benefits of open data and open research generally. The global theme for the 2019 event is open data and data justice, with participants encouraged to adapt and modify the theme to best suit their environment. MU Library plans to include open data and open research themes and also Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and demonstrations. This event has proved to be a useful means for the Library to promote data activity on campus as well as nationally and to build a community of data users and experts who can share knowledge and expertise across multiple disciplines. Since the first Love Data Week event the Library has established a Makerspace interest group to explore possibilities for our Makerspace and is collaborating on developing GIS services across campus. This presentation will be of interest to those seeking to create and use data in new and innovative ways.

1. Roads Less Travelled?
Bringing the data
community together
in Maynooth
University (MU)
Library
Fiona Morley,
Maynooth University
Library
Fiona.Morley@mu.ie

2. What is Love Data Week?
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library
• Social media event held week of 14th February
• Open to any institution- small, large, research intensive
or not
• Purpose to raise awareness & build a community to
engage on data related topics
• Sharing of practical tips, resources and stories
• Annual themes but local communities and organisations
encouraged to adapt and modify to suit
• LDW website -information on themes and topics,
resources, suggestions for activities, discussion prompts

3. Inaugural Love Data Week in MU Library
2018
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library
• Approached known contacts and built a network
• Advised of the theme- ‘data stories’ (how data is
produced, consumed (or ignored) and managed
• Worked with
– Library Events and Facilities team to make practical arrangements
– Library IT Team for tech support,
– Library Digital Communications Team for social media and online
promotion.
• Promotion by campus communities and Dept Public
Expenditure and Reform (Open Data Unit)
• #lovedataweek #lovedataweek18 #lovedataweek19
#LDW

4. Inaugural Love Data Week in MU Library
2018
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library
• Participants able to bring on board others e.g. visiting
academics/public servants from USA, Greece and NI
• External contributors from Dept Public Expenditure and
Reform Open Data Unit and Derilinx (business)
• University Contributor subject areas: Library, Media
Studies, Information, Geography, Research institutes,
Social Sciences,

5. Inaugural Love Data Week in MU Library
2018 – topics of talks
• Multiple Representations of Biometric Data
• Use of locative media or data for investigating the socio-
cultural aspects of urban everyday life
• Spaces for relational data
• Integrating weather data rescue into the classroom
• Tapping into Open Data
• Open Research Data and Critical Data Studies
• Research Data Management
• Maximising Belfast business rates through the use of
data and machine learning
• Copernicus climate change service and MU
• Introduction to sharing/re-using data with IQDA and DRI
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

6. Inaugural Love Data Week in MU Library
2018 – information stands/workshops
• Government’s national Open Data Portal data.gov.ie
• Building City Dashboards (Dublin/Cork)- VR/AR demo
• Visualising your data with maps using free and open software
(QGIS) (workshop)
• Talks – ranged from 15 min (several) to 1 hour – presenter
decision
• Workshops- 1-2 hours
• Info Stands- 3-4 hours (have goodies!)
• https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/love-data-
week-2018
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

7. Love Data Week in MU Library 2019
• Theme- Data in Everyday Life
• Topics- Open Data, Data Justice
• Open Data- ‘A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, re-
use and redistribute it – subject only, at most, to the requirement to
attribute and/or share-alike’ (http://opendatahandbook.org/)
• Researchers have more options in obtaining research data to answer their
questions
• Members of the public have greater opportunity to participate in,
collaborate on, and experience research through citizen science initiatives.
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

8. Love Data Week in MU Library 2019
• Continued the smart cities/mapping discussions from 2018 as fit well with
the theme and our plans to expand GIS services from Library
• Contributor subject areas- as 2018 plus Computer Science (2),
• Complementary sessions on mapping using ArcGIS and QGIS following an
unplanned but beneficial co-ordination by the relevant speakers, assisted
by the Library
• More time and space given to information stands and demos as these
captured particular attention in year 1.
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

9. Love Data Week in MU Library 2019 -Topics
• Open Journal System
• ArcGIS and using Open Data for Mapping
• Government Open Data and the National Open Data Portal data.gov.ie
• APIs for the Music you love: all the data you can get
• Research Data Management
2019 talks ranged from 30 minutes to one hour
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/love-data-week-2019
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

10. Love Data Week in MU Library 2019 –
Information stands and workshops
• MURAL (Maynooth University Research Archive Library) – rebranded
institutional repository (drop in clinic in library foyer, 2 hours/2 days)
• DPER Open Data Unit- National Open Data Portal data.gov.ie
• Building City Dashboards –Digital Dublin in VR
Workshop
• Mapping Open Data and Engineering Fictions (collaboration)
Stands- generally 2 hours, DPER 6 hours
Workshop 1- 1.5 hours
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

11. Positives
• Showcasing data related initiatives campus wide and beyond and bringing
the campus data community together
• Makerspace community established after the first LDW- Computer Science,
Design Innovation, Geography, National Centre for Geocomputation,
Engineering. Music- discussion of ideas for optimising use of Makerspace,
VR, hack clubs, digital skills classes
• Collaborative opportunity for the library at next to no cost
• Reputational benefit for the library and the University- lots of social media
traction particularly Twitter, positive acknowledgment from University
President and others
• Being part of an international data community initiative
• Flexible- can be adapted to resonate more strongly with your local
community or organisation
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

12. Challenges/Opportunities
• Adapting the formats to suit the time of year and
environment. Talks v workshops v exhibitions- other
formats e.g. mini-hackathons? Video presentations?
• The informal/organic nature of the event- workshops
and demos often adapted on the fly depending on
numbers, who is present or their interests as well as
availability of visiting experts or other collaborators
• Be Flexible!
• Be active on social media especially Twitter & follow
LDW events elsewhere
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

13. Future
• Collaboration with public library? Citizen science, coding
clubs?
• Explore other potential contributors across campus
• Online options
• MU Library VR demo or collaboration- ‘maker’ activities
• More student involvement- mini-hackathon? Data
projects and/or visualisation?
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

14. Resources
• Love Data Week https://lovedataweek.org/
• Ireland’s National Open Data Portal https://data.gov.ie/
• E-Learning resources from European Data Portal on Open Data
https://data.gov.ie/edpelearning/en/#/id/co-01 or
https://www.europeandataportal.eu/elearning/en/
• Coderdojo- programming clubs for young people
https://coderdojo.com/
• National Citizen Science Initiatives
http://www.epa.ie/irelandsenvironment/getinvolved/citizenscience
/nationalcitizenscienceinitiatives
• Dublin Maker http://www.dublinmaker.ie/
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library

15. Questions?
www.maynoothuniversity.ie/library