30 research outputs found
Librarian Panel Discussion presentation: The Data Working Group at UMass Amherst
Rebecca Reznik-Zellen, MA, MLIS, is Digital Strategies Coordinator for the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. In her presentation she discussed the development of the Data Working Group at UMass Amherst
Challenges of Data Management Training for Graduate Students at a Large Research University
Objective: To describe the challenges and outcomes of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries\u27 Data Working Group\u27s series of training workshops for graduate students on the subject of data management and preservation, with specific regard to the data management requirements of the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
Participants: The Libraries\u27 Data Working Group is composed of six members with expertise in project management, systems and web development, scholarly communication, digital archives and metadata, and science and social science librarianship. The Data Working Group is one of three subgroups of the Digital Strategies Group at the University Libraries.
Description: The University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries provides a number of services to faculty and graduate students in support of research at an institution classified as a Research University with Very High research activity (RU/VH) by the Carnegie Foundation[1]. Recognizing a high demand for greater data education, the Libraries\u27 Data Working Group has conducted workshops for graduate students in specific disciplines -- humanities, social sciences, and sciences -- designed to address their data needs and highlight smart data management practices. Graduate students were also guided through the data management requirements of national funding agencies and potential solutions.
Results: In its current capacity the Data Working Group provides educational workshops and individual consulting sessions for faculty and graduate students. The Data Working Group observed a significant portion of graduate students who had no prior experience with smart data practices or useful data management resources. This process has identified a clear need for wider, more intensive education for graduate students on data practices and the data management requirements of national funding agencies.
[1] http://www.umass.edu/umhome/research.ph
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Librarian Panel Discussion presentation: The Data Working Group at UMass Amherst
Rebecca Reznik-Zellen, MA, MLIS, is Digital Strategies Coordinator for the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. In her presentation she discussed the development of the Data Working Group at UMass Amherst
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Building a Central Repository for Nanomanufacturing
The InterNano Nanomanufacturing Repository (INR) is a central repository of nanomanufacturing research and trade information for the nanomanufacturing community. It is administered by the National Nanomanufacturing Network (NNN) and funded by the National Science Foundation through the Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The INR is unique even as a central repository because it crosses not only institutional boundaries but also sector boundaries by including reports, research, teaching aids, and grey literature relevant to nanomanufacturing from academic, government, and industrial entities. In addition, because nanomanufacturing is itself inherently interdisciplinary, the repository crosses domain boundaries by including work that ranges from chemistry and physics to sociology and ethics. The INR is still early in development. Reflecting the two essential approaches for nanomanufacturing itself, the NNN is employing both top-down and bottom-up activities to build this national repository. Now in the bottom-up stage, the INR uses EPrints as its most fundamental building block and has incorporated a novel taxonomy and collections structure to support nanomanufacturing information. The NNN has customized the EPrints interface to reflect the InterNano Nanomanufacturing Clearinghouse, which the INR is designed to support. In addition, the NNN is manually migrating and soliciting content from its affiliates to build collections. Looking ahead to the top down activities, the NNN will be implementing an OAI harvester and initiating a SWORD pilot project to facilitate the deposition of relevant content from the vast body of nanotechnology literature. This presentation will describe the INR project with attention to its unique content, taxonomy, and customizations to the EPrints standard interface
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Interactive Taxonomy for Content Exploration and Discovery [poster]
Interactive taxonomic functionality enables visitors to explore relationships between concepts and access content within the nanomanufacturing domain. InterNano is an information portal and subject repository for nanomanufacturing hosted by the National Nanomanufacturing Network at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which combines a dynamic open source content management system (Joomla!) for managing original content with the reliable EPrints repository software system for managing archived publications, educational material, and workshop presentations. Because nanomanufacturing is a small, interdisciplinary subdomain of nanotechnology, an important component of the project is a specialized taxonomy for domain definition and information discovery. The InterNano Taxonomy is a unique, custom-built terminology to describe the nanomanufacturing enterprise—from areas of application to nanomanufacturing processes—with three levels of granularity. The Taxonomy is fully integrated into the InterNano system, linking all tagged content both in Joomla! and in EPrints. By browsing the taxonomy either through a hierarchical list or through a tag cloud, visitors can review and access all of the tagged content within the InterNano portal and repository. InterNano has expanded its taxonomic functionality to enable a more interactive user experience. Spring graphs display Taxonomy terms with respect to their relationship to other taxonomy terms via content tagging and reflect terms’ relative usage statistics. The spring graphs are generated with open source libraries for Python: matplotlib and NetworkX. This capability allows users to explore the different concepts within the nanomanufacturing domain as well as review and access tagged content throughout the integrated InterNano system
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Research Data in Libraries
Researchers must now prepare plans for data management and curation for grant proposals. Librarians are ideally suited to provide support in this area. What skills and knowledge do we need for success in these efforts and to demonstrate our value to our parent institutions?
Presented at the New England Technical Services Librarians 2011 Spring Conference, on April 8, 2011, in Worcester, Mass
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Cheesy Patent Coloring Book
Coloring book containing a selected page from different U.S. patents or patent applications pertaining to the theme of cheese and cheese making materials
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Trends in Large-Scale Subject Repositories
Noting a lack of broad empirical studies on subject repositories, the authors investigate subject repository trends that reveal common practices despite their apparent isolated development. Data collected on year founded, subjects, software, content types, deposit policy, copyright policy, host, funding, and governance are analyzed for the top ten most-populated subject repositories. Among them, several trends exist such as a multi- and interdisciplinary scope, strong representation in the sciences and social sciences, use of open source repository software for newer repositories, acceptance of pre- and post-prints, moderated deposits, submitter responsibility for copyright, university library or departmental hosting, and discouraged withdrawal of materials. In addition, there is a loose correlation between repository size and age. Recognizing the diversity of all subject repositories, the authors recommend that tools for assessment and evaluation be developed to guide subject repository management to best serve their respective communities
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Generalizing the Subject Repository
Subject repositories serve a similar function within their disciplines, but they often evolve in radically different ways from inside their respective fields. When the largest subject repositories such as PubMed Central, CiteSeerX, arXiv, RePEc, SSRN, and AgEcon Search are examined, there are more differences than similarities in terms of sustainability models, software, users, and management. These repositories have developed in relative isolation, all catering to specific disciplinary cultures.
While the success of these repositories should be celebrated, there is a great need to develop general best practices and standards for the building and management of subject repositories. According to OpenDOAR, there are over a hundred discipline-based repositories, many of which have a specifically focused scope. Two such repositories are InterNano (Information Clearinghouse for Nanomanufacturing) and ESENCe Beta (Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse), which are National Science Foundation-funded projects hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst that serve science and engineering disciplines.
When building InterNano and ESENCe Beta, the presenters noted a near complete lack of general literature on the management and development of subject repositories. This project briefing will explain how InterNano and ESENCe Beta were developed through focus groups, user surveys, workshops, and other forms of outreach to related research communities. The briefing will also address the challenges involved in developing standards for repositories that serve diverse disciplines, such as catering to specific user groups and managing different types of site content. The primary desired outcome of the briefing is to begin a discussion on standards for subject repositories