Slides presented by Donna Kafel and Regina Raboin at the Oct. 13, 2014 meeting of the Oberlin Science Librarians at Williams College. Discusses pivotal events that have fostered the open data movement, emerging roles for librarians, resources from the NE e-Science Program, and the research data management partnerships and initiatives of Tufts University's Library Research Data Services Working Group.

1. What are we doing about data?
Emerging roles in data librarianship
and Tales from Tufts
Oberlin Science Librarians’ Meeting
Williams College
October 13, 2014
Donna Kafel
E-Science Program Coordinator
Lamar Soutter Library
Univ.of Massachusetts Medical
School
Regina Raboin
Science Research & Instruction Librarian
Research Data Management Services
Group Coordinator
Tisch Library, Tufts University

2. The Data Deluge
Somebody call a
librarian!
Image:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Deluge_engravi
ng_by_WIlliam_Miller_after_J_Martin.jpg

3. Policies, Reports & Advocacy
2003 NIH Data
Sharing
2006 ARL Report to
NSF
2008 ARL
Reinventing Science
Librarianship forum
2011 Joint Data
Archiving Policy
2011 NSF Data
Management
Requirements
2010 Panton
Principles for Open
Data
2013 OSTP Memo
and Executive
Order
2014 Open
Government
Partnership
2015 NIH Genomic
Data Sharing Policy

4. How do we meet community needs with what we
have?
Taking the pulse of your community and library
1. Learn what research is being done
2. How is it funded?
3. Who on campus is responsible for directing research and supporting
research proposals?
4. How involved is your campus IT with research computing?
5. What is the level of student involvement in research?
6. What are researchers currently doing with data?
7. Assess the skills of your library staff
8. Does your university have archives, or an institutional repository?
9. Are there open access initiatives? Survey the OA journals in which
your faculty/researchers are publishing.
10. Do other journals in which your researchers publish require data
sharing?

5. Key Roles for Librarians
• Teaching Data Information Literacy
• Data management plan consulting
• Building data management guides
• Informationists/Embedded librarians
• Assisting researchers with metadata and statistical
analysis tools
• Planning and managing data repositories
• Assisting researchers with publication and
preservation options

6. Resources from the NE e-Science
Program
E-Science Portal for New England Librarians
http://esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu/

7. Journal of eScience Librarianship
• Advance e-Science librarianship as a discipline
• Covers range of topics including RDM services,
data curation, embedded research librarians, data
sharing and reuse
• Dissemination of research and “e-Science in
Action”
http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/

8. Annual events
• University of Massachusetts and New England
Area e-Science Symposium
• Science Boot Camp
• Professional Development Days

9. NECDMC
http://library.umassmed.edu/necdmc/index

10. • Established in 1852, Tufts is a private university with campuses in
Boston, Medford/Somerville & Grafton, Mass., and Talloires, France
• Total students: 10,819; Undergraduates: 5,131; Graduate and
professional: 5,284; International: 1,246
• Total libraries: 6; Total volumes, all libraries: 1,236,421
• Tisch Library: 59 staff; 20 professional, 39 library assistants

11. Tisch Library

12. Research Data Management Services Group
Goals:
– Provide data management plan support and
development
– Provide updated information on evolving Federal
open data requirements & guidelines
– Educate researchers (faculty, staff, students) in
research data management, open data & open access
– Collaborate, coordinate and consult with Arts,
Science & Engineering around University-wide data
management initiatives
– Concerns: how to bring data management services
& education to a diverse academic & research
community with decentralized libraries and services?

13. Strategic University Partnerships
– Vice-provost for Research
o Office of Proposal
Development
o Office of Research
Administration
o Office of Program
Development
– Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC
– Arts and Sciences Associate
Director for Research Affairs and
Grants Administrator
– School of Engineering Research
Administrator
– Tufts Digital Collections and
Archives (Tufts Institutional
Repository and Digital Library)
– Tufts Technology Services
o Research and GIS Technical
Services
o Educational and Scholarly
Technology Services
– Tufts University Scholarly
Communications Team
– University Library Council
– Hirsch Health Sciences Library
– Webster Veterinary Library

14. Strategic Initiatives
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Informational Trip (March
2014)
o Executive summary: OVPR, Tufts Libraries, TTS, and DCA have
opportunity to evolve and build university-wide data
management services, policies and procedures.
• E-Science Duraspace Institute (November 2013 - April 2014)
o Results: Tisch Library Data Management Services Strategic Agenda
• E-Science Portal for New England Librarians (2010 - )
• Science Boot Camp (2010 - )
• Scholarly Communications Team (2012 - )
• New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
(NECDMC; 2011 - )
• Research and Graduate Programs Council (September 2014
presentation)

15. Accomplishments, 2009 -
• Established Tisch Library’s Data Management Services Group: Data
Management/Data Sharing Plans consultations
• Education Services: Best Practices in Research Data Management
o New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
(NECDMC) (ongoing)
o Savvy Researcher Series (ongoing)
o Hirsh Health Sciences Library: Tufts Medical/Dental/Sackler
School/Friedman School
o Research Data Management Software Pilot Project (June 2013 -)
Collaboration with Program Development (OVPR) and inclusion
in Tufts Innovates! Grants
o Office of Proposal Development & Institutional Review Board
o Tufts Research Day on Data Science (May 2014)

16. Group’s Future Initiatives
General
– Continue building on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Informational Trip
recommended actions
– Build on the DuraSpace Institute takeaways and continue developing strategic
agenda for Data Management Services
– Update/redesign Data Management Research Guide
– Work with Tufts Technology Services and others to develop a ‘one services
portal’ surrounding data management services at Tufts
– Sustainability for Research Data Management Services Group
Data Management Plans
– DMP Tool, Version 2 – download, customize and link from web site
– Investigate link from within Research Administration database
Education
– Tufts Graduate Schools, Research labs, Centers/Institutes (especially new
interdisciplinary centers)
– Continue building partnership with the offices of OPD & Program
Development
– NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students
– Tufts Technology Services & Research Data M anagement Software:
Development of training for Tufts faculty/researchers and students (merge
with NECDMC)

17. Consulting on Data Management
Plans
How do we work with our A & S and School of Engineering faculty?
• Grants administrators contact us with lists of faculty who are
preparing NSF/NIH and other organization grant proposals
• We use an email template to contact researchers
• We ask to work with researcher in person, email, sometimes both
• We will arrange a meeting with subject specialist and metadata
librarian (when necessary)
• Our DMP template is attached to email, will provide a directorate
specific template
• We ask the researcher to provide grant summary and/or prospectus
• Within the email we provide a ‘path’ or ‘outline’ for researcher on how
to proceed

18. Research Data Management
Software
Pilot Project

19. Data Management Practices at Tufts
• Faculty:
– utilize ad hoc data management systems
– are reliant on their students and research associates to store,
manage and retrieve their group’s data
– leverage services offered by Tisch library staff to prepare data
management plans for grant submissions
– Finding the data as mandated by the government becomes
increasingly difficult as:
– more and more data are generated
– students/associates use different data storage methods
– students/associates leave the university
– the time between data acquisition and request increases

20. Project Charter / Goal
The goal of this project is to select, implement,
manage and support a University-wide research
data management service for the Tufts research
community.

21. Exploratory Phase: 2012-2013
• May 2012 – Nov 2013
• Participants
– Chemistry Department
– Digital Collections & Archives
– Tisch Library
– Tufts Technology Services
• Stages
– Assessed ELN/LIMS market and products
– Surveyed Tufts research community
– Outreach to other institutions

22. Survey Results
• Common storage schema
but wildly different
organizational
schema
• Many researchers would
need hours to days to
retrieve data
• Majority of responders
lose track of their data
before the end of the time
period required by NIH,
NSF, and OSTP
• The majority of
researchers still share files
via email.
• Useful features of a
prospective data
management system:
– Ability to search within saved
documents
– Sharing documents with
groups of users
– Re-analyzing (not only
viewing) data
– Web-based platform
– Login-based authentication
– Electronic Laboratory
Notebook (ELN)
– Integration with MS Office
– Minimal learning curve

23. RDMS Project 2014
• Jan 10, 2014 – Kickoff meeting
• Jan 15, 2014 – Mar 15, 2014:
Pilot planning w/ project
team and vendors
• Mar 15, 2014 – May 15, 2014:
Pilot
• May 15, 2014 – June 30, 2014 :
Study of pilot results and
purchase decision
• July 2014: Contract negotiation
• August 2014: Rollout planning
• September 15, 2014: Rollout
• 2 software platforms
– ELN
– ELN + DMS
• 20 faculty and 10
researchers across all
disciplines
– Training
– Support
– Feedback
• Reference checks

24. Pilot Results
• Both programs were generally well-received
• Researchers believed that the programs would
facilitate their research and data management
processes.
• Easy-to-use vs. complicated/powerful
• Next steps: Awaiting decision by Office of Vice-
Provost for Research/Tufts Technology Services;
planning for roll-out
24

25. Research Data Management
Services Group Role
• Developed an overview of best practices in research data
management and metadata for pilot participants
• Participated in software evaluations, pilot project training and
surveying participants; gathering feedback and helping with
final assessment of products
• Collaborating with Tufts Technology Services to develop
training for Tufts faculty/researchers and students (ELN
software + NECDMC)

26. Let’s chat!

27. Resources
• Antle, Patrick. “DMSPT Kickoff”. Powerpoint presentation.
January 10, 2014.
• Antle, Patrick. “RDMS Simmons LIS 532 G”. Powerpoint
presentation. September 17, 2014.
• Gold, A. 2007. “Cyberinfrastructure, Data and Libraries, Part
1.” D-Lib Magazine: (13) 9/10. Accessed 10/16/2012.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september07/gold/09gold-pt1.
• Hey, T. and Trefelen, A. 2003. The Data Deluge: an e-Science
Perspective. The UK e-Science Core Programme.
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/257648/1/The_Data_Deluge.pdf

28. • Raboin, Regina. “Scientific Research Data Management, Tufts
Services”. Powerpoint Presentation. September 27, 2014.
• Shorish, Y. 2012. “Data Curation is for Everyone?! The Case for
Master’s and Baccalaureate Institutional Engagement with
Data Curation.” Libraries. Paper 1.
http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/letfspubs/1