MDLS 2021 Archive
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Online
October 18-20, 2021
Session materials are available on the OSF Meetings Archive. Each talk has a page on the OSF Meeting Archive with links to presentation slide decks.
MDLS 2021 Schedule
Monday, October 18, 2021
2:00-2:15 | Welcome
2:15-3:15 | Panel
On Becoming a Data, Gaming, and Popular Culture Librarian: Defining Niche Areas of Data Librarianship
Hannah Gunderman, Data, Gaming, and Popular Culture Librarian, at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
After starting in a data librarian role at CMU Libraries, I realized that I could define a niche area of data librarianship that would be impactful and meaningful to an underserved user base on campus. This allowed me to contribute to our holistic data management services without encroaching on existing services or duplicating efforts. In this talk, I will describe the process of defining niche areas of data librarianship, and offer tips for data librarians who may find themselves in similar situations to my own, where data management services are already firmly established in their workplaces. I will also describe why I chose the title of Data, Gaming, and Popular Culture Librarian, and highlight the unique opportunities data librarians are afforded by engaging with data librarianship through a popular culture lens.
Universe(ity) Does Revolve around Us: The Library as a Central Hub for Research Data Management Services
Claire Payne, Web Services and Data Librarian at Stony Brook University Libraries
Jessica Koos, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University Libraries Over the past several years, Stony Brook University campus stakeholders from areas including the University Libraries, Information Technology, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Biomedical Informatics, and Clinical Research have come together to coordinate SBU’s research data efforts. Even while the University Libraries does not currently have a full-time data librarian, the library has emerged as a campus leader in these collaborative research data efforts and initiatives. This presentation will detail how a group of librarians has been able to creatively work together to continuously grow the suite of research data-related services we offer. We will illustrate how these collective efforts–including offering workshops across campus and creating a comprehensive research guide highlighting university-wide resources–have effectively positioned the Libraries as a central hub of information for the entire university on research data management.
Introduction to Ligature
Alex Michael Berry, Data Engineer at Indiana University in Bloomington
This talk will go over the reasons for the creation of the Ligature knowledge graph specification and related implementations. Focusing on use cases and practical examples while comparing Ligature to existing options. Finally a brief status update will be given with plans for future work.
3:15-3:30 | Break
3:30-4:30 | Workshop
Other Duties as Assigned: Data Governance
Abigail Goben, Data Librarian & Policy Advisor at University of Illinois at Chicago
Heather Coates Data Librarian & Data Steward at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Kristin Briney, Biology Librarian at Caltech
As research data management and sharing has become ubiquitous, the need for data governance — coordinated decision-making around research data across all levels of an institution — has come to the forefront. Data governance is needed to address issues such as the new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy and the ongoing challenge of researchers leaving an institution. Due to their familiarity with working across disciplines and throughout their organizations, data librarians should be key partners in the establishment and implementation of data governance. This presentation will introduce approaches at three universities who are at different stages of research data governance maturity.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
12:30-1:00 | Welcome & Open Discussion
1:00-2:00 | Panel
Data Management Strategy for Regional Planning Research
Laine McNamara, Business Systems Analyst II at Metropolitan Council
As a new Business Systems Analyst in the Metropolitan Council’s Community Development – Research unit in spring 2021, I was tasked with developing a Data Strategy. The team contains a wide array of skillsets and roles, a complex suite of projects, and a lot of data—collected over decades in some cases. I designed a deliberate approach to learning the technical, infrastructural, and social aspects of data and its lives on the team. This presentation will describe my process, discuss how it’s gone so far, and highlight the gaps and opportunities I have identified for short- and longer-term projects.
Data Fallacies in Consultations- Experiential Takeaways
Samah Alshrief, Data Specialist at Seton Hall University
Chelsea H. Barrett, Business Librarian at Seton Hall University
In the 2020-2021 academic year, the Seton Hall University Data Services Team experienced an influx of Data Services Consultations. In this time, when patrons shared their data/research requests, many data inaccuracies were noticed. These inaccuracies came in the form of mistaken ownership of data, incorrect interpretation of data and/or improper use of statistical analysis. In this talk, we will discuss these issues and avenues to prevent such issues utilizing our request form.
Assessing Research Dataset Usage, Findability, and Accessibility: Identifying Critical Junctures for Research Data in Scholarly Communication Systems L. Wynholds, PhD, Research Data Librarian, Utah State University
Mike Shelton, MLIS, Utah State University
This presentation discusses an assessment of the use, accessibility and findability of a heterogeneous research dataset collection managed by the Utah State University Libraries in collaboration with the University’s Office of Research. It outlines the merits of the collection for evaluating the limitations of how research datasets and metadata currently circulate in scholarly communication systems such as CrossRef, DataCite and PubMed. The findings demonstrate several critical junctures limiting findability, accessibility and reuse at numerous levels of scale. The paper discusses interventions (or lack thereof) available at various levels of scale and makes recommendations on how to address these limitations.
2:00-3:00 | Mentorship Session
Organizer: Heather Shimon, Science & Engineering Librarian, at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Join the conversation as a mentor or a mentee to connect and share about data services, libraries, MDLS, and more. Registrants who signed up for the session will be matched. We will try to accommodate anyone who didn’t sign up and still wants to participate.
3:00-3:15 | Break
3:15-4:15 | Workshop
Data and Copyright: What’s Protected?
Sara Rachel Benson, JD LLM MSLIS, at University of Illinois
In this workshop you will learn about the Supreme Court Feist decision and what it means for data–is it protected by copyright? When and why? What does this mean for any datasets your library collects? Let’s discuss this together!
4:15-4:45 | Future of MDLS
Open conversertation on: Has there been a decision made about joining RDAP?
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
12:30-1:30 | Workshop
Atlas.ti for Literature Review
Sharon Ince, Digital Services Librarian/Associate Professor at Seton Hall University
Samah Alshrief, Data Specialist at Seton Hall University
At Seton Hall University, the Data Services Team has utilized Atlas.ti for purposes of qualitative analysis. During this workshop, we will discuss the process of using this software to analyze documents and materials needed to create a robust literature review.
1:30-1:45 | Break
1:45-2:45 | Panel
Making the Most of the ICPSR Bibliography: New Tools for Researchers of All Kinds
Sarah Burchart, Information Resources Technical Specialist, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan
ICPSR’s Bibliography of Data-Related Literature celebrated its 20th anniversary last year with the introduction of new researcher resources that make the most of its unparalleled collection of over 95,000 citations of social science data in both academic and popular literature. Find out how data librarians can use these resources to connect data literature to current events, gain better understanding of social science topics through our research spotlights, and show fellow students and faculty how to make the most of the Bibliography for their research projects.
Qualitative Researchers Need Data Literacy Too: Addressing Qualitative Data and Methods in Library Data Services
Jessica Hagman, Social Sciences Research Librarian at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Hilary Bussell, Librarian for Political Science, Communication, and Economics, The Ohio State University
While definitions of data literacy are ostensibly applicable to any type of data, in definition and practice, data literacy is often centered around numeric or statistical data. In this presentation, we draw on interviews with academic librarians and our own experiences as subject liaisons and qualitative researchers to set out considerations for data literacy specific to qualitative data. We see these considerations as falling into two main areas: interpretive, or related to the understanding of research using qualitative data, and instrumental, or focused on the use of qualitative data for developing new knowledge using ethical principles and practices. For both new data librarians and those new to working with qualitative researchers, we offer concrete suggestions on how data literacy and data-services can be intentionally inclusive of research using qualitative data.
But, what are researchers actually doing? Insights into faculty data publishing practices and perceptions from self-reported data citations
Andrew Johnson, Director of Data and Scholarly Communication Services, at Center for Research Data and Digital Scholarship, University of Colorado Boulder Libraries
In 2014, the University of Colorado Boulder added a field for “published data sets” to its Faculty Report of Professional Activities (FRPA), which all faculty are required to complete on an annual basis. Since then, faculty from all departments across campus have been able to use this free text field to report citations for anything they view as a data set worthy of consideration in their annual evaluations. Preliminary analysis of faculty self-reported citations for published data sets from the last seven years (2014-2020) reveals insights into practices and perceptions like acceptance of data sets as recognized research outputs, use of domain and institutional repositories, differences in data publishing among disciplines, and the gap between faculty-reported data sets and data sets publicly available in repositories. With much understanding of researcher attitudes and behaviors regarding data publishing coming from either individual anecdotes on one end or impersonal surveys on the other, this talk will provide a unique middle view directly from faculty within a context that has professional implications for their own careers.
2:45-3:00 | Break
3:00-3:45 | Lightning Talks
Promoting Library Data Services by the Data Visualization Workshop
Haoyong Lan, Engineering & Data Librarian at University of Louisville
My presentation is mainly about increasing the visibility of library data services by providing data visualization workshops. Data visualization is an emerging and trending field. Offering innovative workshops related to data visualization can attract more campus participants thereby promoting the library data services.
Data Cheerleading: Reduce Data Fear, Increase Data Engagement
Anna White, Science Liaison Librarian, Grand Valley State University
Some library workers are intimidated by data. Some must work with or around data regardless. This presentation outlines what one new, inexperienced data librarian has done to make engaging with data easy.
Playing Data’s Advocate: Advancing Data Ethics Education
Angel Tang, Science & Engineering Librarian at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Heather Shimon, Science & Engineering Librarian at University of Wisconsin-Madison
The presenters will discuss their process in creating an online module on data ethics geared towards undergraduate students as part of the researchERS (Emerging Research Scholars) program at UW-Madison. In response to discussions with researchers regarding the dearth of data ethics instruction on campus, the library’s Research Data Management team decided to supplement existing courses with a flexible, discipline-agnostic module that introduces undergraduate students to data ethics concepts and principles. This lightning talk will cover a brief history of researchERS, the team’s experiences collaborating with other campus colleagues to create digital learning objects, and their efforts to include diverse perspectives in the module.
3:45-4:00 | Break
4:00-5:00 | Closing Session
Struggling with Fit: Patterns, Positions and Radical Adjustments in a “Post”-Pandemic
Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, Associate Librarian / Data Services Librarian & Coordinator of Digital Scholarship at University of Kansas
2021 Planning Committee
Chair:
- Chris Wiley, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Members:
- Kristen Adams, Miami University
- Chao Cai, Purdue University
- Sandi Caldrone, Purdue University
- Ben Chiewphasa, University of Notre Dame
- Leslie Delserone, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Amy Koshoffer, University of Cincinnati
- Scott Martin, University of Michigan
- Rebecca Olson, University of Cincinnati
- Heather Shimon, University of Wisconsin-Madison