Units of Evidence for Analyzing Subdisciplinary Difference in Data Practice Studies

Digital libraries (DLs) are adapting to accommodate research data and related services. The complexities of this new content spans the elements of DL development, and there are questions concerning data selection, service development, and how best to align these with local, institutional initiatives for cyberinfrastructure, data-intensive research, and data stewardship. Small science disciplines are of particular relevance due to the prevalence of this mode of research in the academy, and the anticipated magnitude of data production. To support data acquisition into DLs – and subsequent data reuse – there is a need for new knowledge on the range and complexities inherent in practice-data-curation arrangements for small science research. We present a flexible methodological approach crafted to generate data units to analyze these relationships and facilitate crossdisciplinary comparisons.Library Services (LG-06-07-0032-07) and National Science Foundation (OCI-0830976).is peer reviewe

Assessing Descriptive Substance in Free-Text Collection-Level Metadata

Collection-level metadata has the potential to provide important information about the features and purpose of individual collections. This paper reports on a content analysis of collection records in an aggregation of cultural heritage collections. The findings show that the free-text Description field often provides more accurate and complete representation of subjects and object types than the specified fields. Properties such as importance, uniqueness, comprehensiveness, provenance, and creator are articulated, as well as other vital contextual information about the intentions of a collector and the value of a collection, as a whole, for scholarly users. The results demonstrate that the semantically rich free-text Description field is essential to understanding the context of collections in large aggregations and can serve as a source of data for enhancing and customizing controlled vocabulariesIMLS NLG Research and Demonstration grant LG-06-07-0020-07published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Updating the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model has played a vital role in the field of data curation for over a decade. During that time, the scale and complexity of data have changed dramatically, along with the contexts of data production and use. This paper reports on a study examining factors impacting data curation practices and presents recommendations for updating the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model. The study was grounded in a review of other lifecycle models and informed by a site visit to the Digital Curation Centre and consultation with expert practitioners and researchers. Framed by contemporary conditions impacting the conduct of research and provision of data services, the analysis and proposed recommendations account for the prominence of machine-actionable data, the importance of machine learning for data processing and analytics, growth of integrated research workflows, and escalating concerns with fairness, accountability, and transparency of data and algorithms

Sustaining Collection Value: Managing Collection/Item Metadata Relationships

Many aspects of managing collection/item metadata relationships are critical to sustaining collection value over time. Metadata at the collection-level not only provides context for finding, understanding, and using the items in the collection, but is often essential to the particular research and scholarly activities the collection is designed to support. Contemporary retrieval systems, which search across collections, usually ignore collection level metadata. Alternative approaches, informed by collection-level information, will require an understanding of the various kinds of relationships that can obtain between collection-level and item-level metadata. This paper outlines the problem and describes a project that is developing a logic-based framework for classifying collection-level/item-level metadata relationships. This framework will support (i) metadata specification developers defining metadata elements, (ii) metadata librarians describing objects, and (iii) system designers implementing systems that help users take advantage of collection-level metadata.Institute for Museum and Libary Services (Grant #LG06070020)published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Proposal for an IMLS Collection Registry and Metadata Repository

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposes to design, implement, and research a collection-level registry and item-level metadata repository service that will aggregate information about digital collections and items of digital content created using funds from Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants. This work will be a collaboration by the University Library and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. All extant digital collections initiated or augmented under IMLS aegis from 1998 through September 30, 2005 will be included in the proposed collection registry. Item-level metadata will be harvested from collections making such content available using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI PMH). As part of this work, project personnel, in cooperation with IMLS staff and grantees, will define and document appropriate metadata schemas, help create and maintain collection-level metadata records, assist in implementing OAI compliant metadata provider services for dissemination of item-level metadata records, and research potential benefits and issues associated with these activities. The immediate outcomes of this work will be the practical demonstration of technologies that have the potential to enhance the visibility of IMLS funded online exhibits and digital library collections and improve discoverability of items contained in these resources. Experience gained and research conducted during this project will make clearer both the costs and the potential benefits associated with such services. Metadata provider and harvesting service implementations will be appropriately instrumented (e.g., customized anonymous transaction logs, online questionnaires for targeted user groups, performance monitors). At the conclusion of this project we will submit a final report that discusses tasks performed and lessons learned, presents business plans for sustaining registry and repository services, enumerates and summarizes potential benefits of these services, and makes recommendations regarding future implementations of these and related intermediary and end user interoperability services by IMLS projects.unpublishednot peer reviewe

Asking difficult questions about institutional repositories: Factors for success and new directions for development and research

This interactive point/counter point panel session on institutional repositories will present current research and practice related to the factors for success of IR's. Difficult questions about the feasibility of investing in the development of an institutional repository will generate long overdue conversations about the future directions for research and development of institutional repositories.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78322/1/1450460120_ftp.pd

Enhancing Cultural Heritage Collections by Supporting and Analyzing Participation in Flickr

Cultural heritage institutions can enhance their collections by sharing content through popular web services. Drawing on current analyses from the Flickr Feasibility Study, we report on the pronounced increase in use of the IMLS DCC Flickr Photostream in the past year, trends in how users are engaging with the content, and data provider perspectives on participation in Flickr through the DCC. In addition to users providing comments and tags for images, they are increasingly integrating historical images from libraries and museums into new digital objects and special collections. Intermediary services can fill a key role in lowering the burden for institutions to engage in Web 2.0 initiatives and broadening public access to cultural heritage content. To extend the scope of the current DCC services, we propose a feedback framework for transferring user-generated information to institutional data providers.IMLS LG-06-07-0020published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Graduate Curriculum for Biological Information Specialists: A Key to Integration of Scale in Biology

Scientific data problems do not stand in isolation. They are part of a larger set of challenges associated with the escalation of scientific information and changes in scholarly communication in the digital environment. Biologists in particular are generating enormous sets of data at a high rate, and new discoveries in the biological sciences will increasingly depend on the integration of data across multiple scales. This work will require new kinds of information expertise in key areas. To build this professional capacity we have developed two complementary educational programs: a Biological Information Specialist (BIS) masters degree and a concentration in Data Curation (DC). We believe that BISs will be central in the development of cyberinfrastructure and information services needed to facilitate interdisciplinary and multi-scale science. Here we present three sample cases from our current research projects to illustrate areas in which we expect information specialists to make important contributions to biological research practice

LIS Programs and Data Centers: Integrating Expertise

Scientific data centers have provided data services to research communities for decades and are invaluable educational partners for iSchools developing academic programs in data curation. This paper presents analyses from three years of internship placements at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and interviews with managers at prominent data centers across the country, as part of the Data Curation Education in Research Centers project. Key benefits of the internship program are identified, from the perspective of student learning and the contributions made by iSchool students to data center operations. The interviews extend the case results, providing evidence for potential data curation internship programs at data centers. The DCERC education model fosters integration of expertise across the iSchool and data center communities, enriching academic preparation with state-of-the-art practical experience in ways that are vital to the emerging data profession and its ability to meet the future demands of data-intensive research.ye

Digital Collection Contexts: iConference 2014 Workshop Report

The "Digital Collection Contexts: Intellectual and Organizational Functions at Scale" workshop was held March 4, 2014, at the iConference in Berlin, Germany. The aim was to unite a community of faculty, students, system designers, and developers interested in digital collections, particularly in the context of cultural heritage aggregations. Organized by a team from the University of Illinois, the Europeana Foundation, and the University of Texas at Austin, the one-day workshop brought together an international group of experts representing diverse threads of current research and development to engage on the role of collections in the digital environment and to identify new directions for inquiry.This report compiles the position papers and includes synopses of the presentations by the authors and ensuing discussions.Ope