MDLS 2024 Archive
University of Kansas
On-Site at University of Kansas
October 14-16, 2024
Session materials are available on the OSF Meetings Archive. Each talk has page on the OSF Meeting Archive with links to presentation slide decks.
MDLS 2024 Schedule
All times are US Central Daylight Time (UTC-5:00)
Monday, October 14, 2024
Bruckmiller Room (2nd floor): Registration & conference sessions
Seymour Pub (2nd floor): Beverages, lunch, & breaks
All-American Room (2nd floor): Quiet space
Registration, Beverages, and Networking
8:30 – 9:00
Welcome, Conference Introductions, & Icebreaker
9:00 – 9:40
Welcome
Carol Smith, Dean of Libraries, University of Kansas
Icebreaker
Facilitator: Michelle Zhai, Iowa State University
Presentation Plus
9:40 – 10:10
The Data Repository Enigma: Demystifying archiving from the researcher’s point of view
Kelly Burns
Research Data Management Specialist
Purdue University
The development of institutional data repositories as library-based research services is a rapidly growing necessity extending far beyond initial adopters at well-resourced R1 institutions. This is due in part to federal funding requirements mandating data archiving and preservation. At the same time, understanding perceptions of archiving among different disciplines and specializations is difficult to capture regardless of our stage in service development. The proposed presentation will share results from a case study in which we examined researchers’ perceptions and expressed plans for archiving across campus disciplines and funding agencies. Analysis of Data Management Plans (DMPs) from awarded grants between 2020 and 2023 that include use of the institutional data repository services provided quantitative and qualitative insight into researchers’ perspectives, needs, and potential gaps in services.
This presentation will describe how the method extended our understanding of archiving as a contextual concept and how identification of research community standards and definitions of data archiving and preservation leads to considerations for service development. By discussing findings with attendees, we hope to share how this research strategy shed light on perceptions of archiving and how library practitioners can leverage DMPs as opportunities to align proposed usage with development. We will encourage all to participate in discussion, sharing experiences, and thoughts or suggestions for future work.
Learning Objectives:
- Analyzing data management plans at any stage in repository services development can help library practitioners understand the researchers’ motivations for choosing specific repositories and understand preservation needs.
- How similar research designs that can expose gaps in understanding might be used to communicate and extend what services an institutional repository has to offer.
Workshop
10:15 – 11:45
Using DataCite Metadata to Understand Research Data Sharing Practices at Your Institution
Dani Kirsch
Research Data Specialist
Oklahoma State University
Isaac Wink
Research Data Librarian
University of Kentucky
DataCite, a common minter of DOIs for datasets, provides valuable metadata on those datasets, including dataset title, DOI, authors, publisher, publication year, and relation to other scholarly works. By utilizing the DataCite tools, library workers can access targeted metadata that can contribute to the understanding of scholarly communication dynamics at their institutions, improve the quality of services offered by research support personnel, and offer a basis for future explorations of research data sharing practices within specific academic institutions.
This workshop will provide participants with hands-on experience pulling metadata for datasets shared by researchers at a given institution by searching DataCite Commons and utilizing the DataCite API. Specific topics covered will include writing API calls, viewing and working with JSON objects, data cleaning processes, and limitations on working with DataCite data. Structured time will be included for participants to pull data on their own institutions to explore where researchers share datasets and the completeness of the attached metadata. Participants with all levels of technical expertise are welcome, and there will be options for working with data in R, Python, or Excel. These data can inform services by giving librarians a robust understanding of repositories of interest at their institutions as well as gaps in data sharing practices that they may seek to address in order to ensure that research data can be more findable and accessible.
Participants will be able to:
- Locate datasets for their institution via DataCite Commons
- Modify DataCite API calls to retrieve more extensive institutional data
- Understand the DataCite metadata schema and identify relevant elements for their work
- Analyze and visualize the extracted metadata to gain insights on datasets published by researchers at their institution
- Articulate the possibilities and limitations of using DataCite metadata to better understand research data sharing practices.
Lunch (provided)
11:45 – 1:00
Icebreaker
1:00 – 1:15
Workshop
1:15 – 2:45
Visualize You: Mapping your career trajectory
Abigail Goben
Professor, Data Management Librarian
University of Illinois Chicago
Megan Sapp Nelson
Professor, Head of Grainger Engineering Library
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Data librarianship as a sub-discipline is roughly 15 years old, which means that many data librarians are also moving into the middle of their careers. However, career progress and impacts cannot only be explored by focusing on workplace barriers or from a linear perspective. Career decisions are frequently constrained and facilitated by factors beyond the immediate workplace, including race, gender, geographic location, or family support in addition to many others. Identifying our own reactions and habits of mind can assist in assessing what has supported our career path thus far as well as anticipating how we might react to the ever evolving changes coming at us in the future.
In this workshop, participants will create an infographic that combines the major milestones and influences on their careers thus far, annotated with personalized barriers and facilitators. Prompts will guide participants to reflect on their personal responses from the past in order to anticipate future behavior in response to the emerging work environment. Group and table discussions will look for trends amongst and between participants, to help discover and investigate peer and community approaches. We hope to identify some overarching trends that may impact data librarianship as a field (as reported by participants in the room).
Learning Objective:
- This reflection focused session encourages participants to examine their career from the whole person perspective to identify trends that may enable the participants to take a proactive stance as they make future career decisions.
Break
2:45 – 3:15
Workshop
3:15 – 4:45
Data Librarianship, LEGO, and Metaphor: Playful ways to connect and communicate beyond MDLS 2024
Tami Albin
Associate Librarian
University of Kansas
Jamene Brooks-Kieffer
Data Services Librarian
University of Kansas
Communicating complex, abstract concepts to audiences with differing skill levels is a core responsibility of data librarianship. We work hard to overcome our audiences’ resistance to and fear of what we are trying to impart, and sometimes we don’t succeed. We also grapple with our own anxieties about learning and communicating new things in a professional field that seems to morph every few years. Play and creativity can combat these anxieties. Building on theories of serious play, constructivism, constructionism, and generative metaphor, this workshop will create space for attendees to connect the challenges of data librarianship with ideas and activities that encourage openness and playfulness.
Part 1: The facilitators will briefly introduce theories of serious play, constructivism, constructionism, and generative metaphor, and then guide attendees through a series of questions. Attendees will create their responses as 3D models using LEGO, and then share and reflect in both small and large groups. The primary topic of this day will be attendees’ own experiences as individuals and as professionals in their organizations.
Attendees will reflect on their own experiences in data librarianship through playful building inspired by LEGO Serious Play.
End of day announcements
4:45 – 5:00
Reception
5:30 – 7:00
3 West, Watson Library
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Beverages and Networking
8:30 – 9:00
Morning announcements, Sponsor messages, & Icebreaker
9:00 – 9:40
Presentations
9:40 – 10:10
Using Carpentries Workshops to Support Researchers and Build Community on Your Campus
Kendra Spahr
Academic Services Librarian
Kansas State University
Carolyn Jackson
Scholarly Communication and Open Educational Resources Librarian
Kansas State University
Librarians at a large public research university are partnering with our local Agricultural Research Service (ARS) office to offer Carpentries workshops to researchers in our organizations. The Carpentries is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to support teaching basic data and computational skills to students and researchers. The goal of our collaboration with ARS is to establish a sustainable method to support the development of foundational data analysis and computational skills in the Libraries, the K-State community, and the Kansas workforce. To ensure the success and impact of this initiative, we need to build a community of Carpentries instructors within the library, university, and community.
Though our library is part of a large public research university, we have struggled to develop research support services focused on finding, accessing, and using quantitative data. As we learned about the Carpentries through workshops and peer institutions, Carpentries workshops seemed like a feasible place to start building data support services. We have had some success – offering our first workshop for the K-State community, with 20 attendees. We’ve also had challenges – developing computational skills in library staff and recruiting instructors from academic departments.
We will share what we’ve learned and invite the audience to share their experiences. We’ll also discuss how we plan to build on our recent successes in offering Carpentries workshops. Participants will take away insights about using the Carpentries to educate researchers and how to effectively collaborate with partners to build a Carpentries community.
Is Your Library Ready? A strategy for inclusive access to research and instructional computing
Presentation canceled
Mark Laufersweiler
Research Data Specialist
University of Oklahoma
Researchers and Instructors often require specialized computing environments tailored to their projects and courses. But creating and maintaining these environments can be time-consuming and a barrier for students, especially those with limited access to personal computing resources. The University of Oklahoma Libraries leverages the National Research Platform’s Nautilus project, a hosted Kubernetes framework, to address this challenge. This session will discuss how the library’s Digital Strategies and Innovation unit helps researchers create custom environments. We’ll explore real-world examples, such as a Python coding environment for meteorology students, a text analysis environment for a Women’s and Gender Studies faculty member, and a researcher needing to create an environment for their AI research group. The session will also delve into how the library efficiently responds to configuration requests.
Workshop
10:15 – 11:45
Don’t Get Stuck: Navigating career progression as a data librarian
Karen Nourse
Research & Data Librarian
Middle Tennessee State University
Jamene Brooks-Kieffer
Data Services Librarian
University of Kansas
The career of a data librarian does not come with a roadmap, and professional development advice specific to this area of librarianship can be difficult to come by. Adding to this problem is the variety of workplaces which can influence the direction that one may decide to take; for example, not every data librarian is on a tenure track or even works in academia. Is it any wonder that some data librarians get stuck when it comes to professional goals, particularly at the mid-career point?
This workshop is for every data librarian who has ever wondered “What comes next?”. We will begin by discussing the sticky issues at different points in the data librarian career. We will next describe a wide range of career advancement activities by which to overcome occupational malaise: professional activities and directions that are available to the data librarian, as well as how to take advantage of these opportunities. Finally, attendees will break into small group discussions to connect with others who share similar career interests or concerns.
Learning outcomes:
- Learn about the overarching issues contributing to a lack of professional development and advancement in data librarianship.
- Explore options for professional advancement and fulfillment as a data librarian.
- Understand the ways in which your colleagues are navigating similar issues so that you can learn from each other’s experiences.
Lunch (provided)
11:45 – 1:00
Presentation
1:00 – 1:15
Minoritizing the Minority? The strategies for inclusion of Asian communities in academic library data services
Xiaolan Qiu
Research Data Librarian
East Carolina University
As a nation built on immigration, the United States has welcomed a significant number of well-educated immigrants from around the globe. These diverse communities play a crucial role in research and academic fields. Among these, Asian scholars have made remarkable achievements in their professional careers within U.S. institutions. They constitute an important portion of faculty in certain disciplines, particularly in STEM fields, and have participated in numerous projects supported by funding agencies. Like their colleagues, Asian researchers face challenges related to open science and need to manage and share their research data to meet the scientific community’s requirements.
However, compared to other ethnic groups, university librarians received far fewer requests from Asian communities. What marketing and inclusion strategies can data librarians employ to raise awareness of their services among the Asian population? How can librarians collaborate with other partners to advance their work? This presentation aims to draw data librarians’ attention to minority patrons and prevent further minoritization in their services.
Presentation Plus
1:15 – 1:45
Student Data Wizards Unite! Increasing student engagement with a data viz contest
Erin Ridnour
Digital Scholarship Librarian
Iowa State University
Megan O’Donnell
Research Data Services Lead
Iowa State University
This presentation will cover how a library established a low-barrier–to-entry student data visualization contest for Love Data Week 2024 with the goal of increasing student engagement with the library’s data and digital scholarship services in our newly opened digital scholarship space. Like all new endeavors, many challenges had to be overcome, but we ultimately created an event that encouraged students to share and celebrate their skills with peers and brought new potential partners into our space. Attendees will learn about our successes (great entries, enthusiastic publicity!) and some areas for improvement (submission form headaches, fuzzy entry rules) as well as positive outcomes such as a new data viz best practices workshop for students. In addition to sharing practical advice for other librarians who would like to run a similar event, this presentation will also ask MDLS attendees to discuss and compile their own best practices, advice, and resources for students creating data visualizations.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the complexity and requirements of hosting a contest involving student entries
- Produce a shared resource document of data viz best practices and resources for students
Lightning Talks
1:50 – 2:50
Failures and Lessons Learned
Facilitator: Dani Kirsch, Oklahoma State University
Break
2:50 – 3:15
Workshop
3:15 – 4:45
Data Librarianship, LEGO, and Metaphor: Playful ways to connect and communicate beyond MDLS 2024
Tami Albin
Associate Librarian
University of Kansas
Jamene Brooks-Kieffer
Data Services Librarian
University of Kansas
Communicating complex, abstract concepts to audiences with differing skill levels is a core responsibility of data librarianship. We work hard to overcome our audiences’ resistance to and fear of what we are trying to impart, and sometimes we don’t succeed. We also grapple with our own anxieties about learning and communicating new things in a professional field that seems to morph every few years. Play and creativity can combat these anxieties. Building on theories of serious play, constructivism, constructionism, and generative metaphor, this workshop will create space for attendees to connect the challenges of data librarianship with ideas and activities that encourage openness and playfulness.
Part 2: Attendees will engage in building, manipulating, doodling, and writing to build skill in applying playful methods in their own work. The facilitators will guide activities that may include Story Cubes, pipe cleaners, markers, and poetry. Attendees will practice and build skill in applying playful methods to their own communication efforts.
End of day announcements
4:45 – 5:00
Self-organized Dine-around groups
6:00 – ???
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Beverages and Networking
8:30 – 9:00
Presentation Plus
9:00 – 9:25
What’s on Their Bookshelf? RDM books for researchers
Abigail Goben
Professor, Data Management Librarian
University of Illinois Chicago
Kristin Briney
Data Librarian & Biology and Biological Engineering Librarian
California Institute of Technology
Despite established funder or journal obligations for data preservation and sharing, data management education is still somewhat haphazardly taught through self-education, mentoring, or one-time workshops or lectures. Over the past fifteen years, associated educational materials have been created to primarily support graduate students and faculty researchers. However, as data management has shifted from being a novel area for funding and educational development to being an expected and established part of training programs, much of the early momentum put into developing data management education has been lost.
Current data management education takes the form of online courses, webinars, websites, articles, and occasionally, books. Such books fill an important need for individuals and groups seeking to learn about data management. Frequently, though, data management is not the entire topic of a book but instead is integrated with other methodological materials or is only tangentially mentioned among software-specific guidance. This creates barriers for learners seeking topical or discipline-focused texts and for educators looking for a full semester course textbook.
There is ongoing need for longer form explorations of data management which include updates related to funder, policy, and disciplinary changes and which provide a more significant investigation into areas of data management for specific disciplines or broadly for groups like STEM graduate students.
In this presentation, we explore the landscape of books addressing data management for researchers in order to evaluate the available materials to add to our collections and identify areas where updated book-length resources might be beneficial.
Participants will survey the current landscape of data management books available for a researcher audience and identify gaps related to specific disciplines, regions, and educational level.
Closing Reflection
9:30 – 10:30
The Roles We Play and How to De-Role and Re-Center
Jane Barnette
Professor and Head of Dramaturgy
Department of Theatre and Dance
University of Kansas
Jane Barnette is the Head of Dramaturgy and a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Kansas (KU). Her book Adapturgy: The Dramaturg’s Art and Theatrical Adaptation explores dramaturgically-savvy adaptations for the stage. Barnette’s research includes Chicago-based touring theatre at the turn of the twentieth century, student-centered pedagogy, and depictions of witchy characters onstage and in popular culture. Her newest book Witch Fulfillment considers the wishes creatives fulfill when they put Witch characters onstage and screens. A freelance dramaturg and director who has long been invested in contemplative practice, Barnette is a faculty fellow with the Center for Teaching Excellence at KU and will be directing the wickedly funny new play, John Proctor is the Villain (by Kimberly Belflower) here on campus next semester.
Break
10:30 – 10:45
Breakout
10:45 – 11:45
Informal discussions with career stage peers
Facilitator: Chad Kahl, Illinois State University
Lunch (provided)
11:45 – 1:00
Future of MDLS Community Meeting MDLS is an organization without a formal organizing body. This is a community meeting open to all attendees. You’re here, therefore you’re part of the community. Please share your questions and concerns.
Facilitators:
- Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, 2024 planning chair
- Kate Saylor, 2025 planning committee
End of MDLS 2024
1:00
Thank you to our 2024 Sponsors!
(we are in the process of resizing our sponsor logos - thank you for your patience!)
2024 Planning Committee
Chairs:
- Jamene Brooks-Kieffer, Data Services Librarian; University of Kansas Libraries
Members:
- Kristen Adams, Miami University
- Tami Albin, University of Kansas
- Khiana Harris, Simmons University
- Julia Hon, University of Washington
- Roger Justus, Miami University
- Chad Kahl, Illinois State University
- Dani Kirsch, Oklahoma State University
- Karen Nourse, Middle Tennessee State University
- Daria Orlowska, Western Michigan University
- Katie Pierce Farrier, Network of the National Library of Medicine Region 3
- Kate Saylor, University of Michigan
- jay winkler, ICPSR / University of Michigan
- Michelle Zhai, Iowa State University