Alice Motes, University of Surrey; The US based Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR); Research Data Network

1. A post doc in the library?
Tuesday, 27 June 2017 1
The CLIR Postdoctoral program and Research Data
Management Services
Alice Motes
Research Data and Preservation Manager
University of Surrey
a.motes@surrey.ac.uk

2. • Differences between UK and US academia and RDM
• What is CLIR?
• The CLIR postdoctoral program
• Researcher perspectives in RDM
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Outline

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UK v. US RDM
Ady Negrean CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_negrean/6415818089/

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Structural differences: Academia
UK Academia US Academia
More centralized
• A lot of funding from Government
• Tuition controlled
Less centralized
• Less funded from Government;
diverse funding streams
• Tuition set by University (or the State)
Undergrad: 3 years
Masters : 1 year
PhD: 3 years
• Can start from BA/BS
• Often funded by grants - RA
Undergrad: 4 years
Masters: 2 years (mostly); rarely funded
PhD: 3-6 years
• MS/MA required
• (usually earned in prog.)
• Mostly funded by Uni as TA/RA
Tight PhD market Tight PhD market
Post PhD – researcher track:
Non-academia jobs as bridge acceptable
Several years work as junior researchers
Post PhD – researcher track:
Uni affiliated research positions only
Postdoc(s) or start tenure-track position

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Structural differences: Libraries
UK Data Services US Data Services
Funders focus on institution’s
obligations
Main driver for:
• Policies
• Developing RDM roles
• Infrastructure development
Funders focus on individual’s
obligations
Less prescriptive about:
• Adopting Uni level policies
• Creating RDM support roles
• Infrastructure for
sharing/preservation
Gov’t funded -> data archivists Privately funded, marketplace- > data
librarians
Rice, R 2016 “View from across the pond: A UK perspective.” in L Kellam & K Thompson
(eds), Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice., 19, ACRL -
Association of College & Research Libraries, Chicago, pp. 307-320.

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Role differences in Libraries
UK Roles US Roles
Narrow RDM support role RDM support role;
Hybrid subject/data role;
Data specialist role
• Visualization; GIS; IT/RDM hybrid
Focused RDM, curation, metadata <= PLUS secondary use of data; data
visualization
Expected support for grants Support provided, but possibly part
funded as experts on grant
Staff Staff
Quasi-academic
Academic
Research encouraged, but not in
job description?
Research expected; formally supported
Rice, R 2016 “View from across the pond: A UK perspective.” in L Kellam & K Thompson
(eds), Databrarianship: The Academic Data Librarian in Theory and Practice., 19, ACRL -
Association of College & Research Libraries, Chicago, pp. 307-320.

7. Did I miss anything?
Did I get anything wrong?
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Other differences?

8. CLIR is a small, independent, nonprofit research organization.
Their purpose is to create and manage programs that transform the information
landscape to support the advancement of knowledge.
CLIR promotes forward-looking collaborative solutions that transcend
disciplinary, institutional, professional, and geographic boundaries in support of
the public good.
Their work is geared toward enhancing research, teaching, and learning
environments, which they do in partnership with libraries, cultural institutions,
funders, and communities of higher learning.
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What is CLIR?

9. • Digital Library Federation
• Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives
• Leading Change Institute
• Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original
Sources
• CLIR Chief Information Officers
• Digital Library of the Middle East
• Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
Check out their most recent annual report:
https://www.clir.org/pubs/annual/16annreport.pdf
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CLIR activities in 2015-2016

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CLIR by the numbers 2015-2016

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CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
https://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc

12. • Postdoctoral Fellowships in Academic Libraries
• Data Curation for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
• Data Curation for the Sciences and Social Sciences
Usually a two year position.
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Types of fellowships

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CLIR Goals
https://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc

14. Job/project
description
Host
applies
• CLIR vets
• Hosts
review
Recent
PhDs
apply
• Selects
candidate
• Offers job
Hosts
conduct
interviews
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CLIR Application Process

15. Costs:
• Fellows salaries
• Program and support costs
• CLIR/DLF staffing costs
Flexible/variable funding models for fellowships:
• hosts pay all costs
• hosts cover part or all of fellows salaries; grants cover
CLIR costs
• grants cover all costs
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Funding of the program

16. • Orientation program ~ 1-2 weeks
• Supervisors attend for two days
• Intensive introduction to LIS vocabulary, culture, history
• Guest speakers, readings on data curation, digital humanities,
new technologies and strategies in LIS
• Monthly synchronous sessions with all current fellows (1st/2nd years)
• Website with online forums for informal chats
• In-person seminars in winter of both years
Designed to foster cohort mentality
Collaboration between fellows on projects/publications
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How does the postdoc program work?

17. Mostly in University Libraries:
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Where are Fellows placed?

18. California Digital Library, University of California
U.S. Agency for International Development
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Internet Archive
Library of Congress
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But not always!

19. Fernando Rios (Johns Hopkins University)
• Developing/piloting a strategy for archiving and sharing research software
• created a toolbox for curating and archiving research software for RDM
specialists that helps provide software archiving or preservation services
Veronica Ikeshoji-Orlati (Vanderbilt University)
• Collaborating with faculty, graduate students, researchers, and librarians in
developing the library’s support for data curation services and assisting
researchers with data management and preservation.
• lead workshops on research best practices in mark-up languages, metadata
standards, digital preservation, and computational analysis of datasets
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Examples of CLIR Fellows projects
Current fellows projects: https://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/fellowsupdate

20. Alberto Campagnolo (Library of Congress)
• Based in the Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD)
• working to render, capture and link previously unknown material and content
data from Medieval collections
• linking digitally rendered data and information with the original object through
an integrated approach to data and software management and preservation
• working with preservation chemists and special collections curators, including
Dr. Emiliano Degl'Innocenti, the lead researcher on CENDARI (Collaborative
European Digital Archive Infrastructure)
Alice Motes (University of Minnesota)
• Hey that’s me!
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Examples of CLIR Fellows projects

21. • Formally bring researchers into library
• Bring deep domain knowledge to library services
• Develop services responsive to technologies employed to conduct and
disseminate research
• Encourage innovative and systemic changes to collection’s uses and users
• Bring a researcher mentality to assessment, evaluation, teaching
• Build collaborative relationships with other library services/institutions
• Bring research agendas into library services
• Status: A PhD (rightly or wrongly) gains advantage in some cases
Why call it a postdoc?
Attracts more candidates because of flexibility to return to academia
Also: highly qualified candidates introduced to libraries; can carry forward
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What’s the advantage?

22. • Trained researchers are employed in libraries, especially in RDM positions!
• Is this the result of the alt-ac market?
• Could it be done in a more intentional way?
• Are opportunities being missed for harnessing that perspective and
skill set?
• Possibly because there is less focus on research in library
positions?
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Researcher Perspectives in UK Libraries

23. • Cambridge data champions
• Researchers talking to researchers
• Empowering researchers to build their own type of RDM support
• Encouraging establishment of RDM-type role within departments, tied
to central RDM
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Researcher Perspectives in UK Libraries

24. Did I miss anything?
How does your institution bring researcher perspectives in?
Any questions about the CLIR Postdoctoral Program?
Could you imagine a program like this in the UK?
What would it look like?
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What do you think?

25. The Process of Discovery:
The CLIR Postdoctoral
Fellowship and the Future
of the Academy
John C. Maclachlan,
Elizabeth A. Waraksa, and
Christa Williford, editors
https://www.clir.org/pubs/
reports/pub167
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For more on the Postdoc program: