Category: Research Libraries

"Coaching Copyright: Rules and Strategies for the Game"

Kevin L. Smith has self-archived "Coaching Copyright: Rules and Strategies for the Game."

Here's an excerpt:

This essay is intended to help librarians who are confronted with copyright issues and questions for which they may feel unprepared. A framework of five questions is presented that offers a structured way to think about any copyright dilemma, and specific details to assist with address each of the frameworks' questions are discussed. The metaphor of coaching is employed to keep those addressing specific issues focused on practical solutions for particular situations

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

ARL:Proceedings of the 2018 Library Assessment Conference

ARL has released "Proceedings of the 2018 Library Assessment Conference."

Here's an excerpt:

These proceedings, arranged by themed sessions, comprise 80 papers representing the diversity of assessment efforts, including value and impact, space, methods and tools, digital libraries, and non-traditional users.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Cultural Obstacles to Research Data Management and Sharing at TU Delft"

Esther Plomp et al. have published "Cultural Obstacles to Research Data Management and Sharing at TU Delft" in Insights.

Here's an excerpt:

Research data management (RDM) is increasingly important in scholarship. Many researchers are, however, unaware of the benefits of good RDM and unsure about the practical steps they can take to improve their RDM practices. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) addresses this cultural barrier by appointing Data Stewards at every faculty. By providing expert advice and increasing awareness, the Data Stewardship project focuses on incremental improvements in current data and software management and sharing practices. This cultural change is accelerated by the Data Champions who share best practices in data management with their peers. The Data Stewards and Data Champions build a community that allows a discipline-specific approach to RDM. Nevertheless, cultural change also requires appropriate rewards and incentives. While local initiatives are important, and we discuss several examples in this paper, systemic changes to the academic rewards system are needed. This will require collaborative efforts of a broad coalition of stakeholders and we will mention several such initiatives. This article demonstrates that community building is essential in changing the code and data management culture at TU Delft.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"The Strategic Collaboration of Libraries in Digital Preservation"

Monika Zarnitz et al. have published "The Strategic Collaboration of Libraries in Digital Preservation" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

The German National Specialist Libraries cooperate closely in the field of digital preservation. One of the partners hosts the preservation system, while each library creates its own workflows and is free to ingest its digital material into this system. This paper delineates the factors for success of this collaboration. It describes the different aspects of collaboration in digital preservation and describes the benefits and costs of cooperation in this field as a case study.

Digital preservation is resource intensive and the required technology is complex. Therefore the libraries benefit from synergy effects: Reduced cost by sharing the preservation system, usage of similar workflows and formats of digital objects, work sharing in networking activities and staff training. The paper also stresses the advantages and difficulties while applying for certificates in a consortium. Their collaboration extends to intensive national and international networking activities, which yield more contacts than a single library could maintain if it acted on its own. The libraries' staffs are active in working groups of nestor—the German network for digital preservation—and in working groups of the Open Preservation Foundation.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"WCAG 2.1 and the Current State of Web Accessibility in Libraries"

Carli Spina has published "WCAG 2.1 and the Current State of Web Accessibility in Libraries " in Weave.

Here's an excerpt:

Ensuring the accessibility of web content is key to ensuring that users with disabilities have equal access to online information and services. However, as a review of the literature demonstrates, even in the face of legal requirements, accessibility problems persist across the web, including in the online content created and shared by libraries. This article examines the new success criteria in the recently released WCAG 2.1, considers the opportunity they present for libraries to improve the user experience for users with a broad range of disabilities, and proposes steps to improve compliance with WCAG and online accessibility more broadly.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"’Is the Library Open?’: Correlating Unaffiliated Access to Academic Libraries with Open Access Support"

Chloe Brookes-Kenworthy et al. have self-archived "'Is the Library Open?': Correlating Unaffiliated Access to Academic Libraries with Open Access Support."

Here's an excerpt:

This paper explores the extent to which the ideals of 'openness' are being applied to physical knowledge resources and research spaces. The study investigates the relationship between academic library access policies and institutional positions on open access/open science publishing. Analysis of library access policies from twenty academic institutions in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Africa and the United Kingdom shows physical access to libraries for the affiliated public is often the most restricted category of access. Many libraries impose financial and security barriers on entry, limiting access to collections in print and other non-digital formats. The limits on physical access to libraries contrast with the central role institutions play in facilitating open access to research outputs through institutional repositories and open access publishing policies. Comparing library access policies and practices with open access publishing and research sharing policies for the same institutions finds limited correlation between both sets of policies. Open access policies have a direct association with narrow aspects of public access provided through online availability of publications, but are not necessarily with delivering on a broader commitment to public access to knowledge. Institutional mission statements and academic library policies may refer to sharing of knowledge and research and community collaboration, multiple layers of library user categories, privilege and fees can inhibit the realisation of these goals. This conflicts with global library and information commitments to open access to knowledge.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Computational Intelligence to Aid Text File Format Identification"

Santhilata Kuppili Venkata and Alex Green have self-archived "Computational Intelligence to Aid Text File Format Identification."

Here's an excerpt:

One of the challenges faced in digital preservation is to identify the file types when the files can be opened with simple text editors and their extensions are unknown. The problem gets complicated when the file passes through the test of human readability, but would not make sense how to put to use! The Text File Format Identification (TFFI) project was initiated at The National Archives to identify file types from plain text file contents with the help of computing intelligence models. A methodology that takes help of AI and machine learning to automate the process was successfully tested and implemented on the test data. The prototype developed as a proof of concept has achieved up to 98.58% of accuracy in detecting five file formats.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Teaching Practical Research Data Management Skills through Online Training and Data Management Plan Creation"

Beth Montague-Hellen and Holly Ranger have self-archived "Teaching Practical Research Data Management Skills through Online Training and Data Management Plan Creation."

Here's an excerpt:

Introduction: Research Data Management is growing in importance as a field as the amount of data which researchers must manage increases. It is important to ensure that postgraduate researchers are trained through engaging courses which practically prepare them to fulfil the data management requirements of funders and Universities, and to carry out their research in a transparent and effective manner. Description of program: We present a case study of the development and delivery of a new Research Data Management (RDM) online course for postgraduates and early career researchers. The course implements pedagogical theory and a reverse design paradigm in the development of library training provision enabling the creation of a course vastly more relevant to academic research practice than our previous offering. The course uses a simplified Data Management Plan to introduce students to Research Data Management Concepts, and by asking them to apply this knowledge, lifts the course from one which simply asks students to remember knowledge to one which shows them how to apply this knowledge in a way that is applicable to their own research. The course has been evaluated for effectiveness and student engagement at 3 months. Next steps: Although some analysis of the effectiveness of the new course has been undertaken, the course will continue to be evaluated. Although the course was developed for PGRs it has been popular with ECRs and Professional support staff and we will investigate how we can further meet the needs of these groups. The platform used will allow for the topics most often accessed to be identified and the course, and the University’s training provision will be adjusted based on this evidence. We hope that other institutions will be able to learn from our experience and implement similar courses.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Quality Control for Media Digitization Projects"

Michael Casey has published "Quality Control for Media Digitization Projects" in the Journal of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives.

Here's an excerpt:

his article defines types of quality control and explores risk management strategies that are broadly applicable to any organization engaged in media digitization for long-term preservation. It uses the quality control system for audio and video digitization that was developed by Indiana University’s Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative to provide examples and illustrations of these ideas.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Developing a Data Management Consultation Service for Faculty Researchers: A Case Study from a Large Midwestern Public University "

Virginia A Dressler et al. have published "Developing a Data Management Consultation Service for Faculty Researchers: A Case Study from a Large Midwestern Public University" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

To inform the development of data management services, a library research team at Kent State University conducted a survey of all tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty about their data management practices and perceptions. The methodology and results will be presented in the article, as well as how this information was used to inform future work in the library's internal working group. Recommendations will be presented that other academic libraries could model in order to develop similar services at their institutions. Personal anecdotes are included that help ascertain current practices and sentiments around research data from the perspective of the researcher. The article addresses the particular needs of a large Midwestern U.S. academic campus, which are not currently reflected in literature on the topic.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"National Archives Releases Digital Preservation Framework for Public Comment"

The National Archives has released "National Archives Releases Digital Preservation Framework for Public Comment."

Here's an excerpt:

The National Archives and Records Administration is seeking public comment and discussion on our digital preservation framework, which consists of our approach to determining risks faced by electronic files, and our plans for preserving different types of file formats. The public is encouraged to join the discussion, September 16 through November 1, 2019, on GitHub. . . .

This is evidenced by the June 2019 direction (M-19-21, Transition to Electronic Records) to Federal agencies to transition business processes and record keeping to a fully electronic environment and to end the National Archives’ acceptance of paper records by December 31, 2022.

The National Archives' digital preservation subject matter experts, led by Director of Digital Preservation Leslie Johnston, have been hard at work to prepare the National Archives for this change. They have formalized a set of documents that describe how we identify risks to digital files and prioritize them for action, and created specific plans for the preservation of these many file formats.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Progress in Research Data Services: An International Survey of University Libraries"

Andrew M Cox et al. have published "Progress in Research Data Services: An International Survey of University Libraries" in the International Journal of Digital Curation.

Here's an excerpt:

University libraries have played an important role in constructing an infrastructure of support for Research Data Management at an institutional level. This paper presents a comparative analysis of two international surveys of libraries about their involvement in Research Data Services conducted in 2014 and 2018. The aim was to explore how services had developed over this time period, and to explore the drivers and barriers to change. In particular, there was an interest in how far the FAIR data principles had been adopted.

Services in nearly every area were more developed in 2018 than before, but technical services remained less developed than advisory. Progress on institutional policy was also evident. However, priorities did not seem to have shifted significantly. Open ended answers suggested that funder policy, rather than researcher demand, remained the main driver of service development and that resources and skills gaps remained issues. While widely understood as an important reference point and standard, because of their relatively recent publication date, FAIR principles had not been widely adopted explicitly in policy.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap

"Research Data Management and the Evolutions of Scholarship: Policy, Infrastructure and Data Literacy at KU Leuven"

Tom Willaert et al. have published "Research Data Management and the Evolutions of Scholarship: Policy, Infrastructure and Data Literacy at KU Leuven" in LIBER Quarterly.

Here's an excerpt:

This case study critically examines ongoing developments in contemporary scholarship through the lens of research data management support at KU Leuven, and KU Leuven Libraries in particular. By means of case-based examples, current initiatives for fostering sound scientific work and scholarship are considered in three associated domains: support for policy-making, the development of research infrastructures, and digital literacy training for students, scientists and scholars. It is outlined how KU Leuven Libraries collaborates with partner services in order to contribute to KU Leuven's research data management support network. Particular attention is devoted to the innovations that facilitate such collaborations. These accounts of initial experiences form the basis for a reflection on best practices and pitfalls, and foreground a number of pertinent challenges facing the domain of research data management, including matters of scalability, technology acceptance and adoption, and methods for effectively gauging and communicating the manifold transformations of science and scholarship.

Research Data Curation Bibliography, Version 10 | Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap