Introduction to the
University Data Library
and national data services
Stuart Macdonald
Associate Data Librarian
Graduate School of Social & Political
Science Induction
September, 2016

Outline
 About the Data Library
 Data Library services & resources
 National data services for social sciences
UKDS
EDINA
ADRN
 Non-academic data sources & tools
 Skills and training

EDINA and Data Library within
Information Services
Divisions
 User Services
 Library and University Collections
 IT Infrastructure
 Applications
 EDINA and Data Library
 Digital Curation Centre
 Learning, Teaching and Web Services

What is a data library?
A data library refers to both the content and the services that
foster use of collections of numeric and/or geospatial data sets
for secondary use in research. A data library is normally part of a
larger institution (academic, scientific, medical, governmental,
etc.) established to serve the data users of that organisation.
The data library tends to house local data collections and
provides access through various means (CD-/DVD-ROMs or
central server for download). A data library may also maintain
subscriptions to licensed data resources.

Data Library: History
 Established out of the Program Library Unit in early
1980s to provide access to data on mainframes, e.g.
1981 population census data. Was part of EUCS,
now Information Services
 Part of long tradition of sharing machine-readable
data for secondary analysis in the social sciences
 Became a national data centre as EDINA in 1996 -
data library continues University remit
 celebrated 30th anniversary in 2013

Data Library - http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library

Data Library & Consultancy
 Finding…
“I need to analyse some data for a project, but all I can find are published
papers with tables and graphs, not the original data source.”
 Accessing …
“I’ve found the data I need, but I’m not sure how to gain access to it.”
 Using …
“I’ve got the data I need, but I’m not sure how to analyse it in my chosen
software.”
 Managing …
“I have collected my own data and I’d like to document and preserve it and
make it available to others.”
 Reference Interviews
 Training and resources:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/data-
library/training-resources

Data Library Resources
 Large-scale social science survey data
 Country and regional level time series data
 Population and Agricultural Census data
 Data for mapping
 Resources for teaching
Opening hours: 9.30am – 5.30pm (Mon. – Fri.)
Argyle House
3 Lady Lawson Street
EH3 9DR
Tel.: 0131 651 1431 or 0131 651 1744
Email: datalib@ed.ac.uk

Data Library Catalogue
arranged by Topic -
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/catalogue

Research Data Management
Services
 Research data management training:
 Research Data MANTRA - Open online course for researchers
managing digital data as part of the research process
 Research Data Management & Sharing MOOC -
https://www.coursera.org/learn/data-management
 Institutional data repository provision
 Edinburgh DataShare
 Assistance with deposit in national archives
 Assistance with Data Management Plans (DMPs)

Research Data MANTRA
• Organising data
• Documentation & metadata
• Storage & security
• File formats & transformations
• Data management planning
• PLUS software-specific data handling practicals
• Open online, self-paced course for researchers
• http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra

Edinburgh DataShare - http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/

Research Data Service
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-
management

Why research data
management is
important

Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) -
http://aqmen.ac.uk/
 AQMeN is a Research Centre that aims to develop projects to improve our
understanding of current social issues in the UK and provide policy makers
and practitioners with independent research-based evidence to build a
better future.
 Funded by ESRC (2013-2016) AQMeN has three primary strands of
research involving a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the UK and
abroad :
• Crime and victimisation
• Education and social stratification
• Urban segregation and inequality
 Original aim was to build capacity in the use of quantitative methods
amongst Scotland’s social science community and beyond.
 AQMeN offer practical quantitative methods training on a range of
techniques developed as part of their programme of research
 Data Library host and manage the AQMeN website

Questions?
Introduction to
National Data Services

UK Data Archive
Founded in 1967 and based at the University of Essex
ESRC / JISC-funded
Work closely with CESSDA, ICPSR, NatCen social research, NCRM, ONS
Houses several thousand social science and humanities datasets
Provides resource discovery and support for secondary use of quantitative and
qualitative data in learning, teaching and research.
More recently it has worked with environmental and medical data sources.
Host to the UK Data Service which provides the following facilities:
• History Data Service
• Census.ac.uk
• Variable and question bank
• Secure Lab
• Qualibank

UK Data Service (UKDS)
£17 million investment over 5 years
UKDS - a comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support
researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social
and economic data.
A single point of access to high quality census data, government-funded
surveys, longitudinal studies, international macro-data, qualitative data and
business micro-data.
Distributed service led by Univ. of Essex in collaboration with:
Jisc Manchester, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census & Survey Research (Univ. of Manchester)
School of Geography (Univ. of Leeds)
Geography and Environment (Univ. of Southampton)
EDINA (Univ. of Edinburgh)
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL)
Commenced 1 October 2012 – integrated ESDS, Census Programme,
Secure Data Service, and other elements of the data service infrastructure
provided by ESRC, including UKDA

UKDS - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

UKDS features include:
Access – free for academic use, registration required
Data – full/partial catalogue search, browse by subject, theme, and
geography, also links to major studies, new releases
Support – finding data, online guides, learning and teaching
resources, online data analysis tools (NESSTAR), external statistical
sources, FAQ
Resources – Online data browsing tools, metadata tools, software
guides, qualitative tools
Advice for using, managing, depositing, sharing research data -
best practice for ESRC researchers and beyond, preservation
guidelines
News & Events – workshops, new data, publications (incl. good
practice guides)

Key Data

• Part of "EDINA and Data Library" division of Information Services at the
University of Edinburgh
• Develops and delivers shared online services and infrastructure to
support research and education in the UK
• Services free at the point of use for use by staff and students in
learning, teaching and research through institutional subscription
• Focus is on service delivery and support but also undertake R&D
(projects  services)
 delivers about 10 online services
 employs about 50 staff (Edinburgh & St Helens)
EDINA – a Jisc centre for digital expertise and online service
delivery – http://edina.ac.uk

EDINA Digimap - http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/

Administrative Data Research Network (ADRN) -
http://www.adrn.ac.uk/

Government data sources
 National Records of Scotland (NRS) –
http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/
 Scottish Census 2011 – Data Explorer –
http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/
 Office for National Statistics (ONS) –
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html
 ONS Neighbourhood Statistics –
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/
 Statistics.Gov.Scot (replacing Scottish
Neighbourhood Statistics) - http://statistics.gov.scot/
 NISRA - http://www.nisra.gov.uk/
 Welsh Government Statistics - http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/?lang=en
 Data.Gov.UK - http://data.gov.uk/
 Eurostat – http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

DataShine
 The DataShine mapping platform is part of the ESRC Big Open Data:
Mining and Synthesis (BODMAS) project.
 Developed and maintained by UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
 The overall project seeks promote and develop the use of large and open
datasets amongst the social science community.
 Promote visualisation of these data in new and informative ways to
inspire new uses and generate insights.
 Phase one has been to create the mapping platform with data from the
2011 Census.
 The next phases developing tools that will enable the synthesis of data
across multiple sources.

Indiemapper (online GIS)

Information Services: Digital Skills and Training - http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-
services/help-consultancy/is-skills/classroom-courses
Classroom
courses include:
ArcGIS Quantum
GIS
SPSS
NVivo
Unix
Skills and Training

An online skills provider offering a
library of high quality video courses
including:
Digital citizenship; Developing with
Python; Pixel playground
Plus many more catering for all
levels from beginner to expert.
From the soft launch in June 2016,
all staff and students will be entitled
to access Lynda.com.
Lynda.com - http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/is-skills/lynda

MOOCS
There are many free Massive Open Online
Courses out there on a range of data-related
subjects
Coursera are one of the MOOC platforms
and offer a range of courses hosted by a
number of leading research-intensive
universities:
The Data Scientist’s Toolbox, Data Structures
and Algorithms, Statistics with R, Python
Data Structures, Data Visualisation, R
Programming, Getting and Cleaning Data,
Exploratory Data Analysis –
See: https://www.coursera.org/browse/data-science/data-analysis?languages=en

The Software
Sustainability
Institute (SSI)
(based in University of
Edinburgh, JCMB) offer
a number of training
opportunities including
Software Carpentry and
Data Carpentry
workshops – see:
http://www.software.ac
.uk/what-do-we-
do/training

New skills:
● (Big Data) Data analysts (R, Python, SPSS, SAS, PHP)
● Data carpentry (software skills & tools for effectively working with
data)
● Data journalists (journalism specialty reflecting the role of numerical
data in the production and distribution of information in the digital
era)
● Data wranglers (munging, mining, handling, manipulating)
● Data technicians, Data scientists

A Data Future

Pics from Flickr (creative commons attribution) – credits
include: D Sharon Pruitt
Ask us about data
stuart.macdonald@ed.ac.uk
datalib@ed.ac.uk