What are we doing about data?Emerging roles in data librarianship
and Tales from Tufts
Oberlin Science Librarians’ MeetingWilliams CollegeOctober 13, 2014
Donna KafelE-Science Program CoordinatorLamar Soutter LibraryUniv.of Massachusetts Medical School
Regina RaboinScience Research & Instruction Librarian
Research Data Management Services Group Coordinator
Tisch Library, Tufts University
The Data Deluge
Somebody call a librarian!
Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Deluge_engraving_by_WIlliam_Miller_after_J_Martin.jpg
Policies, Reports & Advocacy
2003 NIH Data Sharing
2006 ARL Report to NSF
2008 ARL Reinventing Science Librarianship forum
2010 Panton Principles for Open
Data
2011 NSF Data Management Requirements
2011 Joint Data Archiving Policy
2013 OSTP Memo and Executive Order
2014 Open Government Partnership
2015 NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy
How do we meet community needs with what we have?
Taking the pulse of your community and library
1. Learn what research is being done2. How is it funded?3. Who on campus is responsible for directing research and supporting
research proposals? 4. How involved is your campus IT with research computing?5. What is the level of student involvement in research? 6. What are researchers currently doing with data?7. Assess the skills of your library staff8. Does your university have archives, or an institutional repository?9. Are there open access initiatives? Survey the OA journals in which your faculty/researchers are publishing.10. Do other journals in which your researchers publish require data sharing?
Key Roles for Librarians• Teaching Data Information Literacy• Data management plan consulting• Building data management guides• Informationists/Embedded librarians• Assisting researchers with metadata and statistical
analysis tools• Planning and managing data repositories• Assisting researchers with publication and
preservation options
Resources from the NE e-Science Program
E-Science Portal for New England Librarians
http://esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu/
Journal of eScience Librarianship
• Advance e-Science librarianship as a discipline• Covers range of topics including RDM services,
data curation, embedded research librarians, data sharing and reuse
• Dissemination of research and “e-Science in Action”
http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/
Annual events
• University of Massachusetts and New England Area e-Science Symposium
• Science Boot Camp• Professional Development Days
• Established in 1852, Tufts is a private university with campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville & Grafton, Mass., and Talloires, France
• Total students: 10,819; Undergraduates: 5,131; Graduate and professional: 5,284; International: 1,246
• Total libraries: 6; Total volumes, all libraries: 1,236,421
• Tisch Library: 59 staff; 20 professional, 39 library assistants
Research Data Management Services GroupGoals:
– Provide data management plan support and development– Provide updated information on evolving Federal open data
requirements & guidelines– Educate researchers (faculty, staff, students) in research data
management, open data & open access– Collaborate, coordinate and consult with Arts, Science &
Engineering around University-wide data management initiatives
– Concerns: how to bring data management services & education to a diverse academic & research community with decentralized libraries and services?
Strategic University Partnerships
– Vice-provost for Researcho Office of Proposal Development o Office of Research
Administration o Office of Program Development
– Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC
– Arts and Sciences Associate Director for Research Affairs and Grants Administrator
– School of Engineering Research Administrator
– Tufts Digital Collections and Archives (Tufts Institutional Repository and Digital Library)
– Tufts Technology Serviceso Research and GIS Technical
Serviceso Educational and Scholarly
Technology Services
– Tufts University ScholarlyCommunications Team
– University Library Council
– Hirsch Health Sciences Library
– Webster Veterinary Library
Strategic Initiatives• National Science Foundation (NSF) Informational Trip (March
2014)o Executive summary: OVPR, Tufts Libraries, TTS, and DCA have
opportunity to evolve and build university-wide data management services, policies and procedures.
• E-Science Duraspace Institute (November 2013 - April 2014)o Results: Tisch Library Data Management Services Strategic Agenda
• E-Science Portal for New England Librarians (2010 - )• Science Boot Camp (2010 - )• Scholarly Communications Team (2012 - )• New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
(NECDMC; 2011 - )• Research and Graduate Programs Council (September 2014
presentation)
Accomplishments, 2009 -• Established Tisch Library’s Data Management Services Group:
Data Management/Data Sharing Plans consultations• Education Services: Best Practices in Research Data Management
o New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum (NECDMC) (ongoing)
o Savvy Researcher Series (ongoing)o Hirsh Health Sciences Library: Tufts Medical/Dental/Sackler
School/Friedman Schoolo Research Data Management Software Pilot Project (June 2013 -)
Collaboration with Program Development (OVPR) and inclusion in Tufts Innovates! Grants
o Office of Proposal Development & Institutional Review Board o Tufts Research Day on Data Science (May 2014)
Group’s Future InitiativesGeneral
– Continue building on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Informational Trip recommended actions
– Build on the DuraSpace Institute takeaways and continue developing strategic agenda for Data Management Services
– Update/redesign Data Management Research Guide– Work with Tufts Technology Services and others to develop a ‘one services
portal’ surrounding data management services at Tufts– Sustainability for Research Data Management Services Group
Data Management Plans– DMP Tool, Version 2 – download, customize and link from web site – Investigate link from within Research Administration database
Education – Tufts Graduate Schools, Research labs, Centers/Institutes (especially new
interdisciplinary centers)– Continue building partnership with the offices of OPD & Program
Development– NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students– Tufts Technology Services & Research Data M anagement Software:
Development of training for Tufts faculty/researchers and students (merge with NECDMC)
Consulting on Data Management Plans
How do we work with our A & S and School of Engineering faculty?
• Grants administrators contact us with lists of faculty who are preparing NSF/NIH and other organization grant proposals
• We use an email template to contact researchers• We ask to work with researcher in person, email, sometimes both• We will arrange a meeting with subject specialist and metadata
librarian (when necessary)• Our DMP template is attached to email, will provide a directorate
specific template• We ask the researcher to provide grant summary and/or prospectus• Within the email we provide a ‘path’ or ‘outline’ for researcher on how
to proceed
Data Management Practices at Tufts
• Faculty:– utilize ad hoc data management systems– are reliant on their students and research associates to store,
manage and retrieve their group’s data– leverage services offered by Tisch library staff to prepare data
management plans for grant submissions
– Finding the data as mandated by the government becomes increasingly difficult as:
– more and more data are generated– students/associates use different data storage methods– students/associates leave the university– the time between data acquisition and request increases
The goal of this project is to select, implement, manage and support a University-wide research data management service for the Tufts research community.
Project Charter / Goal
Exploratory Phase: 2012-2013
• May 2012 – Nov 2013• Participants
– Chemistry Department– Digital Collections & Archives – Tisch Library– Tufts Technology Services
• Stages– Assessed ELN/LIMS market and products– Surveyed Tufts research community– Outreach to other institutions
Survey Results• Common storage schema
but wildly different organizational schema
• Many researchers would need hours to days to retrieve data
• Majority of responders lose track of their data before the end of the time period required by NIH, NSF, and OSTP
• The majority of researchers still share files via email.
• Useful features of a prospective data management system: – Ability to search within saved
documents – Sharing documents with groups
of users – Re-analyzing (not only viewing)
data – Web-based platform – Login-based authentication– Electronic Laboratory Notebook
(ELN)– Integration with MS Office– Minimal learning curve
RDMS Project 2014
• Jan 10, 2014 – Kickoff meeting
• Jan 15, 2014 – Mar 15, 2014: Pilot planning w/ project team and vendors
• Mar 15, 2014 – May 15, 2014: Pilot
• May 15, 2014 – June 30, 2014 : Study of pilot results and
purchase decision
• July 2014: Contract negotiation
• August 2014: Rollout planning
• September 15, 2014: Rollout
• 2 software platforms– ELN– ELN + DMS
• 20 faculty and 10 researchers across all disciplines– Training– Support– Feedback
• Reference checks
Pilot Results
• Both programs were generally well-received
• Researchers believed that the programs would facilitate their research and data management processes.
• Easy-to-use vs. complicated/powerful
• Next steps: Awaiting decision by Office of Vice-Provost for Research/Tufts Technology Services; planning for roll-out
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Research Data Management Services Group Role
• Developed an overview of best practices in research data management and metadata for pilot participants
• Participated in software evaluations, pilot project training and surveying participants; gathering feedback and helping with final assessment of products
• Collaborating with Tufts Technology Services to develop training for Tufts faculty/researchers and students (ELN software + NECDMC)
Resources• Antle, Patrick. “DMSPT Kickoff”. Powerpoint presentation.
January 10, 2014. • Antle, Patrick. “RDMS Simmons LIS 532 G”. Powerpoint
presentation. September 17, 2014.
• Gold, A. 2007. “Cyberinfrastructure, Data and Libraries, Part 1.” D-Lib Magazine: (13) 9/10. Accessed 10/16/2012. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september07/gold/09gold-pt1.
• Hey, T. and Trefelen, A. 2003. The Data Deluge: an e-Science Perspective. The UK e-Science Core Programme. http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/257648/1/The_Data_Deluge.pdf
• Raboin, Regina. “Scientific Research Data Management, Tufts Services”. Powerpoint Presentation. September 27, 2014.
• Shorish, Y. 2012. “Data Curation is for Everyone?! The Case for Master’s and Baccalaureate Institutional Engagement with Data Curation.” Libraries. Paper 1. http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/letfspubs/1