Data Curation/Management in Libraries and Possible Liaison Librarian Roles

This poster was peer-reviewed for inclusion at the Association of College and Research Libraries' 2013 Conference in Indianapolis. Date of presentation was April 11, 2013.This poster provides an example of a data preservation project at a public university. It includes examples of types of materials preserved as well as ways in which liaison librarians can become involved in this rapidly emerging area.

Data curation in avian ecology: a case study from both the scientist’s and librarian's viewpoints.

This case study of a data curation project, which is currently in progress, demonstrates how a team of scientists has worked, in partnership with librarians, to plan to preserve their scientific output in an institutional repository. In addition, this case study offers a unique perspective. The author worked as one of the scientists in this particular research group for 10 years and is currently a science librarian working on this data curation project. As a result, the author has been an “insider” in discussions in both the scientist and librarian camps and provides viewpoints from both the scientist and librarian lenses. The research group in this case study is the Ketterson/Nolan Research Group, a team of avian biologists in the Department of Biology Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. This research team has focused on the ecology, behavior, and physiology of a songbird, the dark-eyed junco. The research output from this group’s long-term (thirty year) study on this single species of songbird has resulted in rich data sets of a variety of subjects (e.g. population demographics, behavioral observations, DNA records, and natural history). The research group and librarians are working toward more than just the preservation of data, but also the preservation of accompanying descriptive documents that place this large body of work into historical and educational contexts. Described within this case study are preliminary issues that the scientists and librarians have worked through as they have moved to preserve the research output in the library’s institutional repository

E-science and libraries (for non science librarians)

Information Technology is rapidly changing the world of scientific research. We have entered a new era of science. Some call it e-science, while others call it the 4th paradigm of science. Scientists, with the aid of technology, are continually amassing larger and more complex datasets. These data are accumulated are at an ever-accelerating rate. How will this information be organized? What, if any of it should be preserved for future use? How will it be preserved? If it is preserved, how will it be made publically accessible? The NSF and others describe the solving of problems such as these as some of the major challenges of this scientific generation. They also state that tackling these problems will take expertise from many fields, including library and information science. A recent movement of this new era of science is an increasing requirement for scientists to archive and make their research data public. For example, the National Science Foundation (as of January 18, 2011) is requiring scientists to articulate how they will accomplish these goals within data management plans that must be submitted with each grant proposal. What role can libraries play in this new realm of science? What role are libraries already playing? Several libraries have taken the lead in initiating efforts in assisting scientists with a variety of data management needs. This presentation will include a brief overview of the current trends as well as possible future directions in librarianship that this new era of science may lead

In London, Around 1914

This approximation to a year study considers London, 1914 as a site of early modernism’s emergence. It focuses on the cultural interactions between experimental and popular artists, aesthetics, and institutions that were an impetus for, and influence on the development of early modernism. Chapter one discusses the complexity of early modernism’s relationship with popular literary sphere. Two staged public events that happened in January are compared—G. K. Chesterton’s trial of a Dickens character and Ezra Pound’s dinner in honour of the poetic accomplishments of an old man who insisted he was not a poet. Both involved bids for literary autonomy and attempts at public self-fashioning. Neither included attempts to enact a separation of experimental and popular culture. Chapter two concerns the strategies by which the Egoist advertised its resistance to the commercialisation of literature. Attempts were made to shame profitable cultural arbiters, battles were waged against censorship in protection of the artist’s right to autonomy, and attacks were made upon the purveyors of jingoistic war poetry. Rather than being evidence of vehement anti-commercialism, these resistances are shown to operate in the commercial interests of the little magazine. Chapter three considers the competition between rival experimentalisms, charting the way in which the compositors of BLAST appropriated notions of heroism from a new breed of adventure story—mechanical war fiction—to distinguish their talk of machines from that of the Futurists. By interacting with popular culture the Vorticists embraced an avant-garde aesthetic, even as they resisted certain kinds of avant-garde activity that they perceived to have been cheapened by their success and ubiquity. Chapter four re/visits three poets—formative Georgian Poetry contributor W. H. Davies, anthology abstainer Rose Macaulay, and one-poem-Imagiste Skipwith Cannell—to demonstrate the ways in which appearances in anthologies have distorted and deleted parts of the poetic record

Integrating Chemical Information Skills in a Problem-Based Second Semester Organic Chemistry Laboratory toward the Synthesis of Adipic Acid

There is a continued need for laboratory experiments that integrally involve chemical information skills with designing and solving a laboratory research problem. Herein, we describe a learning experience where second semester organic chemistry laboratory students carry out their own research activities toward the synthesis of adipic acid. This lab was developed out of a strategic partnership between the University Library and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The primary objectives of this lab include integrating chemical information skills into a problem-based laboratory experiment, increasing scientific research ability for chemistry students by involving a research cycle, and bolstering student perceptions of research and laboratory work. The relevance, safety, cost, scalability, growth potential, and success of this learning experience are also discussed

Energy flux through the horizon in the black hole-domain wall systems

We study various configurations in which a domain wall (or cosmic string), described by the Nambu-Goto action, is embedded in a background space-time of a black hole in $(3+1)$ and higher dimensional models. We calculate energy fluxes through the black hole horizon. In the simplest case, when a static domain wall enters the horizon of a static black hole perperdicularly, the energy flux is zero. In more complicated situations, where parameters which describe the domain wall surface are time and position dependent, the flux is non-vanishing is principle. These results are of importance in various conventional cosmological models which accommodate the existence of domain walls and strings and also in brane world scenarios.Comment: references added, accepted for publication in JHE

Interaction of a brane with a moving bulk black hole

We study the interaction of an n-dimensional topological defect (n-brane) described by the Nambu-Goto action with a higher-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole moving in the bulk spacetime. We derive the general form of the perturbation equations for an n-brane in the weak field approximation and solve them analytically in the most interesting cases. We specially analyze applications to brane world models. We calculate the induced geometry on the brane generated by a moving black hole. From the point of view of a brane observer, this geometry can be obtained by solving (n+1)-dimensional Einstein's equations with a non-vanishing right hand side. We calculate the effective stress-energy tensor corresponding to this `shadow-matter'. We explicitly show that there exist regions on the brane where a brane observer sees an apparent violation of energy conditions. We also study the deflection of light propagating in the region of influence of this `shadow matter'.Comment: version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Assessment of Information Literacy Instruction Mapped to a STEM Degree Curriculum

The chemistry librarian at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) collaborated with faculty from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in mapping information literacy and chemical information components into the curriculum for undergraduate degrees in Chemistry. The curriculum mapping involved scaffolding information skills instruction throughout the degree programs. Mixed assessment methods were used to determine whether or not the learning outcomes of the information literacy program were met. Assessment results were also used to identify gaps, identify student misconceptions, and revise future instructional sessions and learning activities in order to improve student learning