2025 Symposium Schedule
All times are in US Eastern Daylight Time (EDT; UTC-04:00)
Location
All conference sessions will be held at the Michigan State University Main Library, 366 W. Circle Drive, East Lansing, MI.
Monday, October 20
Breakfast & Registration
8:00 - 9:00
Welcome, Housekeeping, & Icebreaker
9:00 - 10:15
Icebreaker Facilitator: Daria Orlowska, Western Michigan University
Break
10:15 - 10:30
Presentations
10:30 - 11:45
Facilitator: Summer Mengarelli, University of Notre Dame
Check back soon for a detailed list of presentation titles and times!
Break
11:45 - 12:00
Lunch & Birds of a Feather
12:00 - 1:00
Lightning Talks
1:00 - 2:10
Facilitator: Nicole Scholtz, University of Michigan
Check back soon for a detailed list of lightning talk titles and times!
Break
2:10 - 2:30
Workshop
2:30 - 4:00
Dataset Bingo! Teaching Data Management Best Practices Through Exploration of Shared Datasets
Megan O’Donnell
Research Data Services Lead
Iowa State University
Jen Ferguson
Head, Research Data Services
Northeastern University
Isaac Wink
Research Data Librarian
University of Kentucky
Making data management lessons stick for learners can be a challenge. We have developed a dataset bingo game that provides an unorthodox opportunity for learners to take note of data management practices that can be applied to datasets in any field, thus making it a flexible learning activity across disciplines. By having learners investigate shared datasets in their field, they not only gain exposure to scholarly communications practices around data sharing, but also experience the real-world impact of good or bad data management practices.
MDLS participants will have the opportunity to try an in-development version of this activity and provide feedback. This iteration of the game will be physical, but we intend to also make a version that can be played virtually. Over the course of the workshop, we will cover the context for the activity, play the game with participants, facilitate a discussion about how participants may apply it at their own institutions, and provide files for running and adapting the activity.
Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate datasets for ease of understanding and reuse through an interactive game,
- Match data management best practices to published datasets,
- Adapt the game for deployment at your institution
Break
4:00 - 4:15
Lessons Learned
4:15 - 5:00
Dine-Arounds
Tentatively 6:00 - 8:00
Tuesday, October 21
Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00
Keynote
9:00 - 10:00
Check back soon for more information about our keynote!
Break
10:00 - 10:15
Facilitated Discussion
10:15 - 11:15
Share and Compare: Position Titles and Descriptions
E.M. Durham
Research Data Librarian
University of Kansas
How are position titles and descriptions working for, or against, us? How do our responsibilities differ from paper to practice? How do we anticipate them changing in the next five years? This session will begin with a brief presentation to frame the conversation, transitioning into a facilitated discussion where participants can compare and reflect on position titles and job descriptions across the field. The presenting facilitator will share their recent experience navigating the job market, interviewing, and securing their first librarian role as they enter a newly created position and are actively co-defining their role. The structure of the conversation will allow participants to exchange experiences and perspectives with peer practitioners, in small groups of varied experience, and as a whole. While example descriptions will be provided to begin discussion, sharing individual position descriptions and responsibilities with one another will be encouraged.
Objectives and hopeful outcomes:
- Provide an opportunity for transparent conversation about roles and responsibilities across data librarianship.
- Identify common experiences and perspectives on the challenges and opportunities titles and descriptions pose for practitioners.
- Consider how position descriptions are evolving and how they could be evolved to better grow a diverse and inclusive data community.
Break
11:15 - 11:30
Interactive Presentation
11:30 - 12:00
Data Data: An Institutional Data Repository Analysis
Michelle Zhai
Research Data Librarian
Iowa State University
Please don’t include an institution name in your abstract * Our institutional data repository hosts over 600 datasets, published throughout a little over eight years, which allows us to ask a lot of questions. Who are we serving through the repository? What are some of our impacts? Can we draw conclusions to guide future actions? What else can we learn from these datasets? A presentation will briefly cover the workflow and some of the insights from the analysis.
An interactive session will follow the presentation. The focus is on institutional data repository statistics. Participants can share their observations on the presentation and their own experiences. We will also have a chance to brainstorm ideas or establish collaboration with peers.
Learning objectives: During the session, the participants will
- Interpret usage statistics presented in the presentation
- Identify tools or platforms to study data repository stats at their institutions
- Construct ideas of future collaborations or projects
Lunch
12:00 - 12:30
Tours / Extended Lunch
12:30 - 1:30
Check back soon for more information about tours!
Break
1:30 - 1:45
Workshop
1:45 - 3:15
Scoping When the World’s on Fire: Mapping, Modeling, and Diagramming to Establish Sustainable Data Services
Isaac Wink
Research Data Librarian
University of Kentucky
Mikala Narlock
Director of Research Data Services
Indiana University Bloomington
Scoping data services is hard! Even during “normal” times, it can be incredibly difficult to set expectations for data services at an academic institution: there is always more that could be done, always a researcher with a new need. In our effort to refuse narratives of “doing more with less,” we have been actively working at our respective institutions to (re)define what data services can do. In this workshop, we will walk attendees through a scoping process to encourage reflection at their home institutions.
Whether participants come from established and well-resourced data services teams or are sole service providers balancing data services against other responsibilities, this workshop will provide a space for them to map out and articulate the data services they can (and can’t!) offer. By mapping, diagramming, modeling, or otherwise visually representing their services and capacity, participants will have the opportunity to experiment with new formats for articulating their work. Our framework for this workshop will be Slow Librarianship, which will encourage participants to consider how to do fewer things better rather than more things poorly.
We will balance lecture, independent work, and group discussion to enable participants to leave with a better understanding of the existing data services models in use across institutions. Through peer-to-peer learning activities, attendees will brainstorm scoping of data services and visually map their thoughts using a variety of models we provide or ones they create themselves. Workshop participants will be able to articulate services that are in scope and out of scope for their institution given current capacity, considered through the lens of their current position as a solo data services librarian, team member, or manager. Attendees will be encouraged to consider which services will be delivered in which formats and, importantly, which services may be out of scope for their institution given current staffing and expertise.
Break
3:15 - 3:30
Unconference Session
3:30 - 5:00
Facilitator: Amanda Tickner, Michigan State University
Dine-Arounds
Tentatively 6:00 - 8:00
Wednesday, October 22
Breakfast
8:00 - 9:00
Workshop
9:00 - 10:30
Tracing Our Data Lineage
E.M. Durham
Research Data Librarian
University of Kansas
Who are the beings, places, and entities that brought us to this field, practice, and our scholarship? How did this unique makeup of individuals make it into this room together at this moment? “Tracing Our Data Lineage” will create space for us to expand the citation apparatus and name the sources of our influence and support beyond those in the literature. Grounding the workshop, the facilitating presenter will first give a lightning talk to introduce their framing of data lineage, including examples from their own journey. Next, attendees will be guided through exercises using analog tools such as sticky notes and markers to document lineage points and identify connections, culminating in a collaboratively generated representation of our individual and collective lineages. In closing, we will reflect on the activity in small groups and then share out the insights we uncover.
In the vein of thinkers such as Donna Haraway, this workshop invites us to interrogate the stories we tell about our past, present, and future. By giving recognition to the teachers, mentors, thought collaborators, peers, and co-creators who are less likely to make it into our bibliographies, we can grow our understanding and appreciation of who we are and who we want to be as a field and community.
Objectives and hopeful outcomes:
- Reflect on the beings, places, and entities that have shaped our paths to research data and data librarianship.
- Collaboratively map and interconnect the diverse lineages of our data community.
- Explore how radical expansion of citation practices can better represent the network of our influences and foster a more inclusive data community.
Break
10:30 - 10:45
Closing Session
10:45 - 11:30
Jamene Brooks-Kieffer Data Services Librarian University of Kansas
Lunch & Business Meeting
11:30 - 1:00
Wrap-Up & Goodbye
1:00 - 1:15