Research Data Access and Preservation Summit, 2016 Atlanta, GA May 4-7, 2016 Part of “Panel 4, Measuring Up: How Are We Defining Success for Research Data Services?” Presenter: Ryan Clement, Middlebury College

1. Building Sustainable Services
at the Small(er) Scale
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2. Hello!
I am Ryan Clement
Currently Data Services Librarian at Middlebury College.
Formerly at Reed College.
You can find me at @rkclement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

3. 1.
Small(er)?
What we talk about when we talk about small liberal arts colleges

4. Characteristics of
small LACs
● Primarily undergraduate
● Primarily non-professional
degrees
● Highly residential
● Selective
● Very low student-faculty
ratio (13:1)
● Teacher-scholar model
● High-touch expectations

5. Funding for
Research
● Almost all from Federal funding
(93%)
● As opposed to many similar
institutions (around 30-50%)
● Biggest sources: NSF, H&HS,
NASA
Source: http://colleges.startclass.com/

6. What we support
@ Middlebury
Data Discovery
Data Management
& Curation
Software Support
and Data Analysis
Data Visualization Data Preservation
Data Services
Librarian secondary
Science Data
Librarian Soon
Digital Archives
Librarian Soon
Student Tutor
Program
Soon
secondary

7. 2.
Setting the foundation
Getting data services up and running

8. Faculty behaviors and attitudes

9. Infrastructure
Middlebury
● 8 systems within
○ Some home-
grown
● 7 systems outside
○ Some home-
grown
● Unitask systems

10. Already too complex
for a small(er)
organization!
Flowchart: Patrick Wallace, Middlebury Library

11. We can’t handle
another flowchart!
Flowchart: Patrick Wallace, Middlebury Library

12. “ At liberal arts colleges, the big
opportunities around data services
center on students.
- Mark Dahl, Lewis & Clark College

13. Middlebury
▪ Thesis & other student work (varies)
▫ SCA collects some
▸ ~5000 theses, about 10% digitized
▫ Electronic thesis archive
▪ Student Symposium
▫ Posters, slides, etc.
▪ Where is student data now?
▫ In departmental servers, file cabinets, student laptops...
Student Work

14. Our graduates come to your graduate and
professional programs

15. 3.
Instructional Assessment
What can we see through a form?

16. Three Forms of
Instruction
Individual
Consultations
▪ Science Data
Librarian, typically
▫ DMP
assistance
▪ Data Svcs Librarian:
social sciences &
humanities
▪ Assessment: typical
stats tracking
One-topic
Workshops
▪ Varies, mainly open
(not class-based)
▪ Mainly aimed at
social science and
humanities
▪ Students, faculty,
staff
▪ Assessment: post-
workshop feedback,
reflection
Longer Workshops
▪ NW5C Data Curation
Workshop (model)
▪ Lab/team-based
▪ Covering “data
management and
curation basics”
▪ Students, faculty,
librarians
▪ Assessment: pre-
and post-workshop
knowledge/behavior
assessment, DCPs,
reflection

17. 4.
Our Wishlist
Where do we go from here?

18. Assessment
Wishlist
▪ Repository system - usage, staff time
▪ Repository system - user experience testing
▪ DMPs - who is doing what they said they would
▪ Outreach - who on campus are we not reaching (social sciences,
humanities, Digital Liberal Arts…)
▪ Add assessment and data literacy competencies to research
methods classes (Info Lit project)
And let’s try to avoid making another flowchart...

19. Measuring what YOU need
Image: Shutterstock via Lifehacker

20. So...how are we
defining success?
EASE -> simplifying processes, eventually reducing staff
time
UPTAKE -> making sure users are using what we build
OUTREACH -> increasing our reach in the social sciences
and humanities
EDUCATION -> reaching students more effectively through
the curriculum

21. Thanks!!
Ryan Clement
Data Services Librarians, Middlebury
@rkclement
rclement@middlebury.edu

22. Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and provided
these awesome resources for free:
▪ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
▪ Photographs courtesy Reed College (slide 13) and
Middlebury College (slides 1,2,7, & 8), others as noted
▪ Flowchart courtesy Patrick Wallace, Digital Archives
Librarian, Middlebury College