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Piloting Linked Data to Connect Library and Archive Resources to the New World of Data, and Staff to New Skills

December 7, 2012

Zheng (John) Wang
Director, Digital Assets Strategies and Associate Director, Content Division, Library
Emory University

Laura Akerman
Technology and Metadata Librarian
Emory University

This session will include a presentation of Emory University Library’s first-hand experience in interlinking Civil War-related materials and other online resources by leveraging open linked data principles. The library has been actively evaluating linked data’s potential to replace current library processes and services (bibliographic services, finding aids, cataloging, and metadata work) as a more efficient and sustainable means, and one that could bring greater benefit to end users for research and learning. The Library’s initial focus was on workforce education and hands-on learning through real-time experiments: the Connections project was begun to prepare staff to work with linked data, a process that has culminated in a 3-month hands-on pilot to build and convert some data. The pilot introduced the concept to a wide range of staff, including subject liaisons, archivists, metadata librarians, and programmers. Emory’s “silos” of data were interlinked with other open data sources as a way to enhance user discovery and use of library materials on a very limited scale.

The presentation will include an assessment on the readiness of the entire linked open data ecosystem for libraries to cross-link disciplines, and the possible roles of libraries in a linked world. Suggestions for staff involvement in this new paradigm of information curation and dissemination will also be discussed.

 

https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/connections/
Presentation Slides (PPTX)
View Slides on Slideshare

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Libraries, Metadata, Project Briefing Pages
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The PressForward Project and Scholarly Communication on the Open Web

December 7, 2012

Dan Cohen
Associate Professor and Director, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
George Mason University

Joan Fragaszy Troyano
Research Assistant Professor, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
George Mason University

 

A healthy ecosystem for scholarly communication requires a continuum from independently distributed work to post-publication peer review. With funding from the Sloan Foundation, the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University created the PressForward project to explore and produce the best means for collecting, screening, and drawing attention to the vast expanse of scholarship that is currently decentralized across the web or does not fit into traditional genres such as the journal article or the monograph.

This presentation will include an overview of current efforts to distribute and evaluate scholarly work available on the open web. An explanation of the experimental methods behind PressForward’s Digital Humanities Now and Journal of Digital Humanities will also be provided. Finally, the session will include a preview of the open source adaptations to WordPress software that PressForward is developing to enable scholarly communities to easily aggregate, select, and credit work published on the open web.

The PressForward Project & Scholarly Communication on the Open Web from CNI Video Channel on Vimeo.

Presentation Slides (PDF)

http://pressforward.org
http://digitalhumanitiesnow.org
http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org

 

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Project Briefing Pages, Scholarly Communication
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The Research Data Alliance: A Forum for Global Cooperation on Data Infrastructure

December 7, 2012

Chris Greer
Associate Director, IT Lab
National Institute of Standards and Technology

Fran Berman
Professor
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is to global data infrastructure what the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is to the Internet. The RDA vision (paraphrased here) is “research data exchange for everyone” and its mission is to “use voluntary cooperation and consensus to run an open, global research data infrastructure.” The RDA Secretariat has been established through Australian Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (IISRTE) support of the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), European Commission support for International Collaboration on Research Data Infrastructure (iCORDI), and US National Science Foundation support to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This session will focus on RDA structure and planning for an interoperable, global data infrastructure.

http://rd-alliance.org/
Presentation

 

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Cyberinfrastructure, E-Science, Project Briefing Pages, Research Data Management, Standards
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Research Data Management Services in Germany: Funding Activities of the German Research Foundation

December 7, 2012

Eva Effertz
Program Director, Research Centers Division
German Research Foundation (DFG)

Introduction by DFG (Effertz)
Presentation (Effertz)

Christian Willmes
Research Scientist
University of Cologne

Constanze Curdt
Research Scientist
University of Cologne

Data Management in Interdisciplinary Research Projects: Case Studies CRC/TR 32 and CRC 806 (Constanze Curdt and Christian Willmes)

Managing and archiving research data in a well-organized framework is essential in every interdisciplinary, long-term research project. All data created or collected have to be stored and backed up along with accurate descriptive information. In addition, the data should be easily accessible by and exchangeable among the project participants. DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centers (CRC) should apply for a data management project. These sub-projects are responsible for the development and implementation of a research data management system.

This presentation will feature two CRC data management case studies: (i) the Transregional CRC 32 “Patterns in Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Systems: Monitoring, Modeling and Data Assimilation” (CRC/TR32,) and (ii) CRC 806 “Our Way to Europe: Culture-Environment Interaction and Human Mobility in the Late Quaternary.” A web-based data management system, a so-called CRC project database, was implemented for both projects, to handle all relevant research data. Both CRC databases are physically located at the Regional Computing Center of the University of Cologne (RRZK). Secure, sustainable archives and back-ups are provided within this environment.

http://www.tr32db.de
http://www.crc806db.de

Presentation (Curdt, Willmes)

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Cyberinfrastructure, Digital Curation, E-Science, Project Briefing Pages, Research Data Management
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The Service Family for Research Data at Oxford University

December 7, 2012

Wolfam Horstmann
Associate Director, Digital Library Programmes and IT, Bodleian Libraries
Oxford University

Neil Jefferies
Research & Development Project Manager, Bodleian Libraries
Oxford University

Research data are at the heart of scholarly advancement. They are increasingly made available on the Internet as underpinnings of research publications or directly exposed as primary research outputs. These emerging trends in scholarly communication are now backed by policy: The UK government is committed to opening up public sector data. The Research Councils UK (RCUK) Common Principles on Data Policy state that “Publicly funded research data are a public good, produced in the public interest, which should be made openly available with as few restrictions as possible in a timely and responsible manner that does not harm intellectual property.”

The challenge for institutions is that research methodologies and the consequent data management practices vary widely across academic subjects and departments. As a consequence, supporting services for researchers have to be generic enough to scale but take into account subject specific requirements.

Support services at Oxford University have been thoroughly studied and prepared in a series of projects, most notably funded by JISC and the University Modernisation Fund. The service family is designed to support researchers in applying best practice and providing e-infrastructure to store and subsequently curate research data, consistent with the University’s research data policy.

The service family at Oxford University foresees a multi-agency approach with the University’s Research Services, IT Services and the Bodleian Libraries working in partnership with the academic divisions. It defines ‘help-not-hinder’ services for different parts of the research life cycle:
•    Inform: The Data Management Hub website is the center of information and support. It links to personal help, policies and subject specific training (including through Oxford’s Doctoral Training Centers).
•    Plan: Data management plans, as increasingly required by funders, can
be generated with DMPonline, a widely used tool that is adapted to Oxford’s needs and integrated with other services.
•    Work: The actual work with data during a research project is the area showing the most diverse use of services inside and outside of the University. Generic tools at Oxford include an easily deployable database (ViDaaS) and the drop-box like DataStage. These are available for embedding in the local research context.
•    Archive: DataBank provides a durable home for research data that is produced and to be held at the University of Oxford. DataBank supports various formats, including software, and different access conditions, ranging from a dark archive to publishing data with a locally minted digital object identifier (DOI).
•    Find: DataFinder enables data generated at Oxford to be discoverable. DataFinder also keeps records of externally available data that represent Oxford’s research results.

Researchers will have a seamless experience when using the research data services at Oxford University. For example, information provided in DMPonline reappears in DataFinder and DataStage automatically transfers data into DataBank, when a durable version is required. Most services are operational individually and the launch of the complete service family is planned for 2013.

Contributors to this work include Paul Jeffreys, Sally Rumsey, Neil Jefferies, David Shotton, Glenn Swafford, James Wilson, Wolfram Horstmann, and others.

 http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/autumn_statement.pdf
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/DataPolicy.aspx
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/rdm/
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/rdm/managedata/policy/
http://damaro.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/rdm/

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Cyberinfrastructure, Digital Curation, Digital Humanities, E-Science, Project Briefing Pages, Research Data Management, User Services
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Student-Driven Innovation: UCLA Library Simul8 Group

December 7, 2012

Kevin Rundblad
UX & Social Technology Strategist
University of California, Los Angeles

Todd Grappone
Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and IT
University of California, Los Angeles

Solving informational problems for users is a core idea at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library. This requires an understanding of how users operate (user research), the interactions they prefer (ux/ui), and the needed expertise to build the interactions for the devices they use (mobile/web). Numerous mobile apps for higher education have been developed over the years, and these products have been extremely popular with campus administrations and libraries, as well as with students and faculty. UCLA Library stepped into this marketplace with a different approach to development than most of the other offerings. The UCLA Library Simul8 team of developers is made up exclusively of students. The benefit of a team of student developers is twofold: first, user research is implicit within the group, since the developers themselves can inform the app development; second, the students tend to have familiarity with the latest programming languages for web/mobile apps, so the skill sets are more available.

This session will discuss the principles behind the formation of the group, the start-up culture of development, the tools and infrastructure utilized, and how projects are created and brought to fruition.

Presentation Slides

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Mobile Technologies, Net Generation (includes Millennials), Project Briefing Pages, User Services
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Supporting Community and Open Source Software in Cultural Heritage Institutions

December 7, 2012

Molly Tamarkin
Kuali OLE Functional Council Chair
Duke University

David Millman
Co-PI ArchivesSpace
New York University

Beth Sandore Namachchivaya
Co-PI ArchivesSpace
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Angela Spinazze
Senior Advisor
CollectionSpace

Katherine Kott
Development Manager, ArchivesSpace
Katherine Kott Consulting

In this session, key leaders from the open/community source projects ArchivesSpace, CollectionSpace, and Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) will share their experience in building community support for open source software in their respective communities of archives, libraries, and museums. This cultural heritage triumvirate is commonly known as GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), and while there are many involved in these areas with a long history of open and community source software, cultural heritage institutions entirely driven by open source information management systems is only just now becoming plausible.

 

http://ole.kuali.org
http://www.archivesspace.org
http://www.collectionspace.org
Presentation (Tamarkin)
Presentation (Spinnazze)
Presentation (Millman)

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Project Briefing Pages
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SURFconext: Next Generation Collaboration Infrastructure Across Institutional Boundaries

December 7, 2012

Frank Benneker
Educational Technologist
University of Amsterdam

Driek Heesakkers
Project Manager
University of Amsterdam

 

Modern universities are becoming loose conglomerates of (inter)disciplinary expertise that have a high degree of connectedness with society in the broader sense. 21st century universities may also be regarded as ‘knowledge servers’ in which a number of communities create, share, publish and apply knowledge. Learning and research, in other words, is becoming a community-wide activity. For the University of Amsterdam, SURFconext, a nationwide Dutch initiative by SURFnet (the Dutch National Research and Education Network), has many of the key features for next generation collaboration infrastructure that create new opportunities for online collaboration. SURFconext combines several key infrastructures based on open standards for federated identity and group management (e.g. saml, grouper), Open Social as widget library, and access to collaboration services. The University of Amsterdam is working on examples of institutional implementation (UvAConext) as a way to set up virtual research environments for researchers by opening up the UvA Sakai and Uportal-based collaboration tools. In this session, topics discussed will include organizational, political and financial as well as technical issues.

http://www.surfnet.nl/en/Thema/coin/Pages/default.aspx
Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Cyberinfrastructure, Project Briefing Pages, Research Data Management, Scholarly Communication, Standards
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Trends and Priorities: Briefing from Federal Funding Agencies

December 7, 2012

Amy Friedlander
Senior Advisor
National Science Foundation

Robert Horton
Associate Deputy Director for Library Services
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Kathleen Williams
Executive Director
National Historic Records and Publications Commission

Joel Wurl
Senior Program Officer
National Endowment for the Humanities

 

Representatives of four funding agencies will initiate a conversation on trends and priorities in their fields. The goals are to identify the opportunities librarians, archivists and museum professionals could address in the near future; how they might better collaborate; and what attendees of the session feel the agencies should consider.

 

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Cyberinfrastructure, Digital Humanities, Digital Libraries, E-Science, Project Briefing Pages, Research Data Management
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The Truth is Out There: Preservation and the Cloud

December 7, 2012

David S. H. Rosenthal
Chief Scientist, LOCKSS Program
Stanford University

 

With the recent introductions of DuraCloud, Preservica, Glacier and others, preservation has joined most other applications in being offered as a cloud service, Preservation as a Service (PaaS). Does PaaS make technical, economic or business sense? What characteristics make applications cloud-friendly? If outsourcing to third-party cloud services is such a great idea, why do companies that get big enough all build their own clouds? Can cooperative efforts to build academic clouds yield benefits?

This talk is based on research, which is on-going, into the economic models of long-term storage with participants from the LOCKSS Program, the University of California at Santa Cruz’s Storage System Research Center, Stony Brook University, and NetApp. It will also include presentation of data from a Library of Congress funded experiment that ran a LOCKSS box in Amazon’s cloud.

 

http://newsscape.library.ucla.edu/

http://blog.dshr.org/2012/12/talk-at-fall-2012-cni.html

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Preservation, Economic Models, Project Briefing Pages, Research Data Management
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