Embedded with the Scientists: The UCLA Experience

In this video article, Lisa Federer, Research Informationist at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, describes her experience as a research informationist for a National Institutes of Health-funded research team at the University of California, Los Angeles

Journal data sharing policies are moving the scientific community towards greater openness but clearly more work remains

Data sharing is a key part of the drive towards greater openness in scientific research, allowing readers to reproduce and confirm an article's findings, or even reuse its data as part of a new study. Many journals have policies requiring researchers to share their data in full, with PLOS being a forerunner in this area. But how effective has the PLOS policy been in increasing the availability of data associated with articles? Lisa Federer reports on an analysis of the Data Availability Statements of more than 45,000 PLOS articles, finding that the ideal of open data is far from fully realised, with researchers’ use of repositories clearly an area for improvement

Defining data librarianship: a survey of competencies, skills, and training

Objectives: Many librarians are taking on new roles in research data services. However, the emerging field of data librarianship, including specific roles and competencies, has not been clearly established. This study aims to better define data librarianship by exploring the skills and knowledge that data librarians utilize and the training that they need to succeed. Methods: Librarians who do data-related work were surveyed about their work and educational backgrounds and asked to rate the relevance of a set of data-related skills and knowledge to their work. Results: Respondents considered a broad range of skills and knowledge important to their work, especially “soft skills” and personal characteristics, like communication skills and the ability to develop relationships with researchers. Traditional library skills like cataloging and collection development were considered less important. A cluster analysis of the responses revealed two types of data librarians: data generalists, who tend to provide data services across a variety of fields, and subject specialists, who tend to provide more specialized services to a distinct discipline. Discussion: The findings of this study suggest that data librarians provide a broad range of services to their users and, therefore, need a variety of skills and expertise. Libraries hiring a data librarian may wish to consider whether their communities will be best served by a data generalist or a subject specialist and write their job postings accordingly. These findings also have implications for library schools, which could consider adjusting their curricula to better prepare their students for data librarian roles.  This article has been approved for the Medical Library Association’s Independent Reading Program

Ghosts and Lovers

Ghosts and Lovers is a collection of short stories told from the points-of-view of four related characters. Travis is a bisexual restaurant owner who fears commitment and longs for the idealistic version of love that he remembers from his past. Ezra, his boyfriend, is an artist struggling to accept the inherent imperfections of life. Travis's ex-girlfriend, Beth, attempts to come to terms with the life that she has chosen for herself. Her husband, Richard, deals with feelings of helplessness as he watches the events of his life unfold before him. By depicting the events of the story from multiple perspectives, the collection attempts to create a more objective view of reality than is ordinarily possible in fiction. An introductory preface examines the role of unreliable narrators and how reality is presented in fiction

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, AND WHY? QUANTIFYING AND UNDERSTANDING BIOMEDICAL DATA REUSE

Since the mid-2000s, new data sharing mandates have led to an increase in the amount of research data available for reuse. Reuse of data benefits the scientific community and the public by potentially speeding scientific discovery and increasing the return on investment of publicly funded research. However, despite the potential benefits of reuse and the increasing availability of data, research on the impact of data reuse is so far sparse. This dissertation provides a deeper understanding of the impacts of shared biomedical research data by exploring who is reusing data and for what purpose. Specifically, this dissertation examines use requests and dataset descriptions from three biomedical repositories that require potential requestors to submit descriptions of their planned reuse. Content analysis of use requests yields insight into who is requesting data and the methods and topics of their planned reuse. Comparing use requests to the descriptions of the original datasets provides insight into the breadth of impact of data reuse and text mining of the original dataset descriptions helps determine the topics of datasets that are highly reused. This study demonstrates that patterns of reuse differ between dataset types, with genomic datasets used more frequently together in meta-analyses for topics that diverge from the original purpose of collection, while clinical datasets are used more often on their own within a context that is similar to the reason for which they were collected. While requestors do come from a range of career stages from around the world, they are not evenly distributed; most requests come from English-speaking countries, especially the United States. This study also finds that datasets that receive the most requests soon after release continue to go on to be more requested, and that datasets covering common diseases are requested more than datasets on rare diseases. These findings have implications for several stakeholders, including funders and institutions developing policies to reward and incentivize data sharing, researchers who share data and those who reuse it, and repositories and data curators who must make choices about which datasets to curate and preserve

Librarian as Researcher

In this webinar, four Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL) scholars shared how their research projects have developed over time, the IRDL application process, and how participants can also embrace the Librarian as Researcher role. This session reviewed the IRDL 2017 call for applications, and discussed how librarians with a passion for research and a desire to improve their research skills may utilize IRDL

A Collaborative Framework for Data Management Services: The Experience of the University of California

The National Science Foundation and other funding agencies now require researchers to include data management plans with new grant proposals. Faced with this requirement, researchers are looking to libraries for help with various aspects of research data management and curation, from creating data management plans to archiving and providing access to their research data. The University of California Libraries deliver a growing range of services and tools such as the DMPTool, EZID, Merritt, Web Archiving Service and campus-based data management programs. This article discusses these initiatives, tools, and methods for campus engagement and faculty outreach, plus opportunities and challenges in developing library data services

The Medical Library Association Data Services Competency: A Framework for Data Science and Open Science Skills Development

Increasingly, users of health and biomedical libraries need assistance with challenges they face in working with their own and others' data. Librarians have a unique opportunity to provide valuable support and assistance in data science and open science but may need to add to their expertise and skill set to have the most impact. This article describes the rationale for and development of the Medical Library Association Data Services Competency, which outlines a set of five key skills for data services and provides a course of study for gaining these skills