Supporting Research Information Management in the Research University: Partnerships, Challenges, and Possibilities

Research universities are increasingly engaging in complex efforts to collect and synthesize information about an institution’s research footprint. The collection, updating, and sharing of the campus’s bibliographic research outputs is an increasingly important part of this effort, as institutions seek to develop external profiling systems and enable collaborator discovery and to also increasingly internally understand the research strengths and synergies of an institution for planning and assessment. Institutions are adopting a variety of tools to support research information management (RIM), faculty activity reporting (FAR), and researcher collaboration and discovery on campus. In this presentation, we will talk about the complex and enterprise wide institutional environment in which this research information management effort is taking place, including an overview of the multiple stakeholders: libraries, research offices, colleges and departments, provosts, and many others. The University of Illinois and Virginia Tech University will provide in-depth case studies about their own campus efforts, talking specifically about campus partnerships, RIM products, bibliographic data sources and gaps, implementation challenges, and faculty engagement. We will conclude with a discussion about the opportunities for greater interoperability between siloed campus systems that collect bibliographic metadata, and the important and evolving role of the library in this emerging and poorly defined community of practice

Data Mining Research with In-copyright and Use-limited Text Datasets: Preliminary Findings from a Systematic Literature Review and Stakeholder Interviews

Text data mining and analysis has emerged as a viable research method for scholars, following the growth of mass digitization, digital publishing, and scholarly interest in data re-use. Yet the texts that comprise datasets for analysis are frequently protected by copyright or other intellectual property rights that limit their access and use. This paper discusses the role of libraries at the intersection of data mining and intellectual property, asserting that academic libraries are vital partners in enabling scholars to effectively incorporate text data mining into their research. We report on activities leading up to an IMLS-funded National Forum of stakeholders and discuss preliminary findings from a systematic literature review, as well as initial results of interviews with forum stakeholders. Emerging themes suggest the need for a multi-pronged distributed approach that includes a public campaign for building awareness and advocacy, development of best practice guides for library support services and training, and international efforts toward data standardization and copyright harmonization.Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-73-17-0070-17)Ope

Workset Creation for Scholarly Analysis and Data Capsules (WCSA+DC): Laying the foundations for secure computation with copyrighted data in the HathiTrust Research Center, Phase I

The primary objective of the WCSA+DC project is the seamless integration of the workset model and tools with the Data Capsule framework to provide non-consumptive research access HathiTrust’s massive corpus of data objects, securely and at scale, regardless of copyright status. That is, we plan to surmount the copyright wall on behalf of scholars and their students. Notwithstanding the substantial preliminary work that has been done on both the WCSA and DC fronts, they are both still best characterized as being in the prototyping stages. It is our intention to that this proposed Phase I of the project devote an intense two-year burst of effort to move the suite of WCSA and DC prototypes from the realm of proof-of-concept to that of a firmly integrated at-scale deployment. We plan to concentrate our requested resources on making sure our systems are as secure and robust at scale as possible. Phase I will engage four external research partners. Two of the external partners, Kevin Page (Oxford) and Annika Hinze (Waikato) were recipients of WCSA prototyping sub-awards. We are very glad to propose extending and refining aspects of their prototyping work in the context of WCSA+DC. Two other scholars, Ted Underwood (Illinois) and James Pustejovsky (Brandeis) will play critical roles in Phase I as active participants in the development and refinement of the tools and systems from their particular user-scholar perspectives: Underwood, Digital Humanities (DH); Pustejovsky, Computational Linguistics (CL). The four key outcomes and benefits of the WCSA+DC, Phase I project are: 1. The deployment of a new Workset Builder tool that enhances search and discovery across the entire HTDL by complementing traditional volume-level bibliographic metadata with new metadata derived from a variety of sources at various levels granularity. 2. The creation of Linked Open Data resources to help scholars find, select, integrate and disseminate a wider range of data as part of their scholarly analysis life-cycle. 3. A new Data Capsule framework that integrates worksets, runs at scale, and does both in a secure, non-consumptive, manner. 4. A set of exemplar pre-built Data Capsules that incorporate tools commonly used by both the DH and CL communities that scholars can then customize to their specific needs.Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, grant no. 41500672Ope

Final Report, Campus Data Storage Services Task Force (public version)

The Task Force on Data StorageServices was charged with several responsibilities: surveying the local and peer institution practices around data storage and services, identifying unmet needs, and recommending both solutions and a strategy for the Urbana campus approach to data storage and related services, to support the campus’ educational, research, and administrative mission. The Task Force began its work in August 2011 and submitted a final report with recommendations on March 9 2012.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Campus Data Storage Task Force Update: IT Pro Forum

The University of Illinois Campus Data Storage Task Force presented an update on its work at the November 9, 2011 IT Pro Forum in Champaign, Illinois. The update included a report of the results of a campus survey of data storage, and the articulation of the future directions of the task force work.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Campus Data Storage and Services Task Force Key Recommendations

This presentation which was made to the University of Illinois Urbana campus IT Council group summarizes the key recommendations of the Campus Data Storage and Services Task Force.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Assessing the Library's Grants Program

In this analysis, seven years of sponsored research projects at the University of Illinois Library at Urbana???Champaign were assessed with the aim of understanding the research trends and themes over that period. The analysis was aimed at identifying future research trends and corresponding support opportunities. Goals included developing institutional research themes that intersect with funding priorities; demystifying grant writing and project management through professional development programs, increasing communication about grant successes; and bringing new faculty and academic staff into these processes. The review and analysis has proven valuable for the Library???s institutional practices, and this assessment may also inform other institutions??? initiatives with grant-writing.published or submitted for publicationnot peer reviewe

IMLS National Forum on Data Mining Research Using In-copyright and Limited-access Text Datasets: Discussion Paper, Forum Statements, and SWOT analyses

This discussion paper foregrounds discussion at “Text Mining with Limited-Access Data,” a National Forum funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The forum convened twenty-five stakeholders for a day-and-a-half long meeting to explore the current landscape for text data mining using texts that are under copyright or protected by licenses, including terms of use licenses, that limit access and use. The stakeholders include librarians, researchers, legal experts, content providers, and representatives of professional organizations. Prior to the forum, project team members interviewed stakeholders to learn more about their perspectives on research that employs use-limited text data, and to guide forum participants in drafting written statements and SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analyses. This paper reports on the progress of the National Forum project, as well as synthesizes participant responses to the interviews and in their forum statements. It intends to establish a shared vocabulary and key points of consideration for the forum. Initial forum statements and SWOT analyses are included as a separate document.IMLS LG-73-17-0070-17Ope

IMLS National Forum on Data Mining Research Using In-copyright and Limited-access Text Datasets: Discussion Paper, Forum Statements, and SWOT analyses

This discussion paper foregrounds discussion at “Text Mining with Limited-Access Data,” a National Forum funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The forum convened twenty-five stakeholders for a day-and-a-half long meeting to explore the current landscape for text data mining using texts that are under copyright or protected by licenses, including terms of use licenses, that limit access and use. The stakeholders include librarians, researchers, legal experts, content providers, and representatives of professional organizations. Prior to the forum, project team members interviewed stakeholders to learn more about their perspectives on research that employs use-limited text data, and to guide forum participants in drafting written statements and SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analyses. This paper reports on the progress of the National Forum project, as well as synthesizes participant responses to the interviews and in their forum statements. It intends to establish a shared vocabulary and key points of consideration for the forum. Initial forum statements and SWOT analyses are included as a separate document.IMLS LG-73-17-0070-17Ope