Session 3 Lightning Talk: MIT Libraries Dataverse

1. MIT Libraries Dataverse
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/mit
Katherine McNeill
Research Data Librarian
Dataverse Community Meeting 2015

2. Background
• History of partnership in the Harvard-MIT Data Center
since the mid-1990s
• Use of the Virtual Data Center (predecessor of Dataverse)
• Liaison: MIT Social Science Data Librarian

3. Basics of our Dataverse
• Managed by the MIT Libraries (in Harvard Dataverse)
• Platform to house and disseminate datasets purchased by
the Libraries for MIT students/faculty/staff to use in their
research
• Not for disseminating data produced at MIT
(other Dataverses and repositories do that…)
• Deposit data that meets criteria
• Harvard Libraries have a similar collection: the
Numeric Data Services Dataverse

5. Authentication mechanisms
• Why restrict access?
• When Libraries purchase data for their collections,
licenses limit dissemination to university affiliates
• Historically: MIT IP range (including proxy server)
• Plan for 4.0: Shibboleth
• Shibboleth support still in development
• IP groups may also be available again in the future

6. Future developments
• Integration with Libraries digital content management
system
• Expanding beyond the social sciences to other subjects
• Involvement of other librarians
• Documenting workflow
• Considering centralizing some management
• Thank you!