The MIT Libraries hosts a Dataverse instance to house and disseminate datasets purchased by the Libraries for use by MIT affiliates in their research. Access is restricted to MIT IP ranges and eventually Shibboleth authentication to comply with licensing terms that limit dissemination to university affiliates. Future plans include deeper integration with the Libraries' digital systems, expanding subject coverage, involving more librarians, and potentially centralizing some management functions.

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!