The Emerging Career ofData Librarianship in Academic Libraries

Hailey MooneyData Services and Reference Librarian

Michigan State University Libraries

Contact Information:mooneyh@msu.eduhttp://dataservices.lib.msu.edu

What is data (to a data librarian)?

Data as a primary source

Types of Data– Numeric

Machine-readable data files

– Non-numeric Traditional primary

sources: private documents (letters, diaries), media (written record, oral record, films, photographs), physical materials

Data

Information

Knowledge

Wisdom

Types of Numeric Data in the Social Sciences

Primary Data (Researcher created)– Surveys

Micro level (individuals)– Cross sectional or longitudinal

Social, economic, demographic Macro level (aggregations)

Secondary/Archival Data (Created for purposes other than academic research)

– Administrative Records– Government, business

Data vs. Statistics

Data Archives

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)

Subject-specific– Roper Center Public Opinion

Archives– Cultural Policy and the Arts

National Data Archive (CPANDA)– Association of Religion Data

Archives (ARDA) University

– University of Wisconsin Data & Information Services Center (UW DISC)

International– German Social Science

Infrastructure Services Association (GESIS)

Evolution of Social Science Data and Quantitative Research

1896 Herman Hollerith forms the Tabulating Machine Company, a predecessor of IBM 1897 Emile Durkheim publishes Suicide 1935 Dr. George Gallup founds the American Institute of Public Opinion 1940 the Current Population Survey is established 1947 Roper Center for Public Opinion Research founded 1948 National Election Studies begin 1951 UNIVAC, the first civilian computer is delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau 1962 ICPSR founded 1968 Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software is first released 1972 Nat’l Opinion Research Center (NORC) conducts first General Social Survey (GSS) 1974 First Internat’l Assoc. of Soc. Sci. Info. Service & Tech. (IASSIST) Conference 1981 Internat’l Business Machines (IBM) releases the Personal Computer 1982 Library Trends special issue on “Data Libraries for the Social Sciences” 1985 National Science Foundation begins to require data sharing 1994 ICPSR launches first WWW homepage 1997 Fedstats.gov is launched 1998 ICPSR data is available for download from the WWW 2001 Numeric Data Products and Services SPEC Kit published

Library Data Services

“The mission of Michigan State University Library Data Services is to make numeric data resources available to students, faculty and staff to support curricular, research, and general information needs.”

Services Provided:– Data Set Identification

(Reference)– Instructional Support– Data Set Acquisitions

Library Units and Data

Public Services Collections Digital Information

Research Data Management Forum: RDMF2: Core Skills Diagram http://data-forum.blogspot.com/2008/12/rdmf2-core-skills-diagram.html as cited in Pryor, G. & Donnelly, M. (2009). Skilling up to do data: Whose role, whose responsibility, whose career?. International Journal of Digital Curation, 2 (4): 158-170.

Data Reference

Reference Interview: Define the Unit of Analysis– Who or what? (social unit)– When? (time)– Where? (geography)

Accessing Research Data– Has it been collected, published, distributed?

Data Librarian’s Toolkit– Traditional library resources and search strategies

Research Guideshttp://dataservices.lib.msu.edu

– Data archives– Telephone/Email

Professional Development and Research Interests

IASSIST: International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology

Scholarly communication, data sharing and citations

The Context for Data Citations

Data Citations

Citations

Style Manuals

Information Standards

Library Systems:Organization, Search, Retrieval

Publishing:Journals, Books, etc.

Scholarly CommunicationCreation Evaluation Dissemination Preservation

Research Data

Use & Reuse

Data Sharing Citation Analysis

BehaviorMotivations

Reference Desk:Known-item searches

Do authors cite data?

Sometimes, but not consistently!

no61%

yes39%

Frequency of Data Citations

n=49

Training for Data Librarians

Data Services Foundation

– MLIS Relevant coursework:

Research Methods, Advanced Reference, Government Information

– Social Science B.A. (or statistics)

On-the-job experience and support

Professional Associations and Networks

– ICPSR Summer Institute

Data Curation/Management Foundation

– MLIS Relevant coursework:

archives and preservation, computer programs and systems, metadata

On-the-job experience and support

Professional Associations and Networks

– Digital Curation Centre, ICPSR Digital Curation

Questions?

Selected Resources

Altman, M., & King, G. (2007). A proposed standard for the scholarly citation of quantitative data. D-Lib Magazine, 13(3/4). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1045/march2007-altman

Cook, M. N. C., Hernandez, J. J. C., & Nicholson, S. C. (2001). Numeric Data Products and Services. SPEC Kit (pp. 93): Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC. Office of Leadership and Management Services. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED463758) Retrieved from ERIC. 

Digital Curation Centre website: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/Green, T. (2009). We need publishing standards for datasets and data tables OECD Publishing White Paper. Paris:

OECD Publishing. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/603233448430 Griffiths, A. (2009). The publication of research data: Researcher attitudes and behaviors. The International Journal

of Digital Curation, 4(1), 46-56. Retrieved from http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/viewFile/101/76  IASSIST website: http://www.iassistdata.org/ ICPSR website: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu.Mahoe, R. (2004). Reflections on the Dissertation Process and the Use of Secondary Data. Educational

Perspectives, 37(2), 34-37. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/edper/pdf/Vol37Iss2/Reflections.pdf Nelson, B. (2009). Empty Archives. Nature, 461(7261), 160-163.Olken, F., & Gey, F. (2006). Social science data library manifesto. Retrieved from

https://hpcrd.lbl.gov/staff/olken/ssdl/ssdl_manifesto.html Read, E. J. (2007). Data Services in Academic Libraries: Assessing Needs and Promoting Services. Reference &

User Services Quarterly, 46(3). Retrieved from http://www.rusq.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/46n3/read.pdf