Neil Rambo gave this presentation during the "Understanding E-Science: A Symposium for Medical Librarians" on February 13, 2012 in Houston, TX.

1. Understanding E-Science: A
Symposium for Medical
Librarians
13 February 2012
The Texas Medical Center Library & The National Network
of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region
Neil Rambo, NYU School of Medicine

2. OUTLINE
- Definitions
- Terminology
- Examples
- Characteristics of
biomedicine & health care
- Opportunities for libraries
- Library strengths
- Challenges & opportunities

3. Theory
Experiment
Observation
Image from http://data3.blog.de/media/618/2452618_3cd174b3ff_m.jpg for limited educational use only.

4. Theory
Experiment
Observation
Image from http://www.drfphoto.com/images/db/static_electricity1.jpg
for limited educational use only.
Copyright DAVID R FRAZIER Photolibrary, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
dave@drfphoto.com

5. Theory
Experiment
Observation
Image from http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/3317/T307_1_051i.jpg
for limited educational use only.
Image obtained from http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/data/13030/gw/ft3q2nb2gw/figures/ft3q2nb2gw_00001.jpg
for limited educational use only.

6. Theory
Experiment
Observation
Computational
Science
Image from http://www.hubis.com/blog/images/SDSC_1.jpg
for limited educational use only.

7. Theory
Experiment
Observation
Computational
Science
eScience

8. NSF Ocean Observatories
Initiative
Copyright © 2008 The Computing Research Association http://www.cra.org/ccc/images/Essential_Elements_v3.jpg

9. It’s all about the data
• Dependent on access to data
• Key capabilities
– Sensor networks
– Databases
– Machine learning
– Data mining
– Visualization
• Capabilities are expected to be
ubiquitous

10. eScience is…
• A new research methodology
– Fueled by networked capabilities and vast
amounts of data
– Data-driven and computationally intensive
• Team science, inter- & multi-
disciplinary
• Multi-institutional & global
• Not a singular model

11. E-science fundamentally alters the ways in
which scientists carry out their work, the tools
they use, the types of problems they address,
and the nature of the documentation and
publication that results from their research.
E-science requires new strategies for research
support and significant development of
infrastructure.
Association of Research Libraries: Report
of the Joint Task Force on Library Support
for E-Science, Dec. 2007

12. escience?
e-science?
e-Science?
eScience?
E-Science?

13. Bioinformatics…
Health informatics…
-Omics…
Research IT…
Enterprise data warehouse…
EMR  HIE  RHIO 

14. L.O. Hertzberger, e-Science and the VL-e
Approach, Trans. on Comput. Syst. Biol. IV,
LNBI 3939, pp. 58-67, 2006.

15. L.O. Hertzberger, e-Science and the VL-e Approach, Trans. on Comput

17. Human Genome Turns 10
"When I was in training, genetics was
a small insignificant subspecialty of
pediatrics, and now pediatrics is a
small insignificant subspecialty of
genetics.” – Robert Marion
F. Collins, R. Marion, J.P. Evans, April 1, 2010, Nature

18. escience +
biomedicine & health care =
???

19. Human health
• Universal interest
• High stakes
• Privacy & confidentiality
• $$$
• Federal & state regulations
• Local competition
• Culture of medicine
• NIH & National Library of Medicine

22. Opportunities for libraries
• Managing research assets
– Data curation
• Supporting new forms of
communication & publication
• Supporting virtual organizations
• Contributing to policy development

23. Areas for library engagement
• Data curation
– Preservation + access  re-use
– Archival practice: selection, access, how
long to preserve, IP rights management
• New forms of publication
• Virtual organizations
• Policy development

24. Areas for library engagement
• Data curation
• New forms of publication
– eJournal links to underlying data
– Reader manipulation of data
– Journal + database = hybrid publication
• Virtual organizations
• Policy development

25. Areas for library engagement
• Data curation
• New forms of publication
• Virtual organizations
– Content, data, tools to enable collaboration
– Challenge of multi-institutional service model
– Extension of digital library environments
• Policy development

26. Areas for library engagement
• Data curation
• New forms of publication
• Virtual organizations
• Policy development
– Funding agency data policies
– NIH public access law
– Open access  Open data
– ScienceCommons licensing models

27. Library strengths
• Open access: deep understanding &
experience
• Integration and interoperability tools
• Archival practices and policies
• Preservation and metadata

28. Library strengths
• Open access: deep understanding &
experience
– Policies, practices, roles
– Institutional & domain repositories
• Integration and interoperability tools
• Archival practices and policies
• Preservation and metadata

29. Library strengths
• Open access: deep understanding &
experience
• Integration and interoperability tools
– Link resolvers, federated search,
metadata standards
• Archival practices and policies
• Preservation and metadata

30. Library strengths
• Open access: deep understanding &
experience
• Integration and interoperability tools
• Archival practices and policies
– Both business & technical strategies
– Research, resource, reference collections
• Preservation and metadata

31. Library strengths
• Open access: deep understanding &
experience
• Integration and interoperability tools
• Archival practices and policies
• Preservation and metadata
– Understanding information life cycle
– Importance of assuring access & usability

32. Challenges/Opportunities
• Research +/- Clinical environments
• iSchools aren’t responding sufficiently
• Need to draw from other disciplines &
professional training
• Need to forge new, expanded partnerships
– Joint research projects with faculty
researchers
– Pilot informatics tools & services

33. Questions? … Thank you!
Neil Rambo
neil.rambo@med.nyu.edu
Copyright © 2008 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.