NSF Funding & New Data Initiatives: Library Repositories on the Leading Edge Panel

Research Data Management Services at the MIT Libraries
Amy Stout

“Science changes the tools and the tools change science.”

“Our ability to create data has outpaced our ability to organize and store it.”

What can librarians do? Stout suggests we learn as much as possible about our departments and their data. We can respond to these changing environments, we can understand the fields we support, we know how to organize, make accessible, and preserve data. You can have an understanding of how to deal with the data, without really understanding the specific data.

Since 2006, study group formed at MIT Libraries, in 2008 brought in a social sciences data librarian and geosciences/GIS expert. For Stout, this is 30% of her job. Services offered:

• Web site:  Data Management and Publishing 
• Education: Managing Research Data 101 (4-5 times per year), new presentation coming soon 
• Bioinformatics for Beginners (team taught with bioinformatics librarian) – using NCBI resources, especially BLAST 
• One-on-one consulting: format migration, DM plans, working on template which will be on their site soon
• Radish: dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/62236 – data set collection example. Small pilot which libraries helped faculty member bring data from another institution. Raised questions such as how to handle non-MIT contributors. Still working on this issue! Also, brought up file type issues: multiple/zip file issues (need software to unpack on server and repack on server, not yet integrated with IR). Inconsistent metadata, much of it esoteric, what is needed? Working through this issue too. 
• Creating data profiles of individual researchers and data audits of entire departments.  
• Developing service model for assisting researchers in the lab. 
• Liaison librarian outreach: developing discipline-specific knowledgebase
  

Stout suggests librarians “try new things, just call them pilot."

Active Data Curation in Libraries: Issues and Challenges William H. Mischo & Mary C. Schlembach At University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Mischo and others are working to embed data curation within the scientific workflow of researchers. Solutions that library IT and others are campus will have a great impact on librarians and libraries, at UIUC librarians are focusing on connecting data to literature, determining their role within the knowledge creation process, and creating GrIPs (Group Information Profiles) on faculty centers. These profiles are online and linked to Scopus, Google news, as well as specific faculty publications and links to searches in their focused areas of research. They also integrate their custom metasearch box within these search profiles.

What data should be curated? They suggest librarians check out federally funded projects such as DataNet, Data Conservancy, DataONE, and Purdue Data Curation Profiles. What levels of data and streams need to be saved? Raw, calibrated, image products which visualize data, derived data, all of this or only some. Also, instrumentation data and metadata must be saved.

For NSF Data Management Plans (DMP) be sure to see varying requirements for engineering directorate, raw data not required to be archived for instance. Check out UIUC Grainger library website and template for DMPs. They are strongly encouraging use of the institutional repository to deposit data. Recent grant was funded, the NSF Ethics CORE Digital Library so stay tuned for more information on this. Mischo and others are working on Responsible Conduct of Research requirement database and wizard to help researchers.

Developing a Data Program at Stanford University
Bob Schwartzwalder pointed out there’s been a surge in interest in reusing data and there is a great economic value in doing this. Librarian’s jobs are changing as there is a packaged approach to information acquisition. At Stanford, there is a wonderful opportunity where librarians “can provide value and benefit not only to communities but society at large.” Leveraging current work with digital repository, partnerships with faculty, and building on existing expertise. Recently, librarians have expanded expertise in the geospatial area.

Establishing integrated data service meets needs of their organization. Metadata issues are critical, especially with the potential of data reuse. Metadata standards are a “mixed playing field.” Some arenas have advanced metadata protocols, while others have none. Data is a “collection issue” and at Stanford revamping collection development policy to support storage and reuse of data. Context may be needed to translate and utilize these data.

For NSF DMPs, librarians at Stanford right now are offering one-on-one consultations to learn needs. Changes in staffing are underway, for instance in 2010 created Associate Director position for STEM data, also a Data Librarian in 2011, and other future plans for staffing shifts are underway.

SUL’s technical infrastructure has three layers. The Stanford Digital Repository as the base with  users/librarians getting info in through the digital object registry (hydra), as well as get info out though the digital delivery system (SUL use Blacklight, searchworks).

Schwartzwalder’s crystal ball: he sees more changes in staffing and focus, a need to build program to assess faculty practices, design technology, need to develop pilot projects and new polices, as well as a need to develop tool sets to “use” data. Tool sets are still an unexplored area with much potential.

Conversations with scientific publishers are also needed, could be assumptions on whether (or not) data included are also peer reviewed.

Q & A
Role for librarians who don’t have institutional repositories?
Promoting the inclusion of data into public repositories. Offer distributed data services, education, not storing data. In the future more collaborative portals will be available for researchers to archive data.

 See ICPSR for example for Social Science data, this data is more homogenous so it’s easier.

Some confusion expressed over goals/commitment involved with ARL eScience Initiative which kicks off in July with a webinar, some uncertainty of what level of commitment, time and outcomes for this program, but this requires a lot of staff commitment.

Get Enlightened! A Few Notes from ELD Lightning Talks

At University of Michigan, engineering librarians partner with health and business librarians to train students on research tools. This allows them to make contacts across campus and develop a joint libguide. Assessment data showed students learning resources they needed to complete multidisciplinary project work. See their online research guide at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/heb.

Caroline Smith at U Las Vegas, Engineering & Architecture Library worked with faculty collaborators to develop a laboratory for educational media exploration. A 3D immersive environment will be created in one of their former study rooms. Students will be able to do software simulations in this space. Positive response from students already about this space. The room will double as a group study space.

Tom Volkening from Michigan State University experienced a sudden renovation project, so surveyed ASEE ELD and 13 of 15 libraries who responded retained the print engineering index. Most libraries put these indexes into off-site storage. MSU are  withdrawing 150 feet of print indexes due to redundancy with online subscription sources.

Eugene Barsky from University of British Columbia shared his info about mining life cycle in this region and symposia. They digitized and provided them free online via the UBC institutional repository. Usage is higher than expected, 5,000 per year. Next step is to work on other conference materials, such as Tailing and Mining Waste.

Jay Bhatt, Drexel, discussed his work with graduate students and teaching information skills. They found first year graduate students were not aware of the research databases within their field of study. Bhatt is working with 12 students, from under-represented populations to bridge them to Ph.D. They created series of six lectures ranging from literature review, current awareness, to citation management.  Delivering in-person through active learning. Assessment includes 2-3 page paper with references using citation management tools. They gave presentations and librarians provided feedback (see Bhatt’s SLA 2011 Poster presentation). Check out the Drexel online tutorials as well.

Amy Van Epps, Purdue University created a workshop “best practices in ethical writing” geared towards graduate students within a teaching course. Van Epps used Wiggins & McTighe's Understanding by Design as basis with “end in mind." Students created concept map with all of the pieces they wanted to teach then asked them to label need to know, good to know, or get familiar with to aid them to prioritize educational content. She tied in “plagiarism” education within this course, and help “ensure understanding” by differentiating between paraphrased, quoted sources.

David  Hubbard from Texas A&M University Libraries offers weekly office hours in the Chemistry building. He offers weekly topics often based on student/faculty questions, sometimes new features/updates, and sharing his own experiences with effective database use. This outreach endeavor serves also as educational opportunity for himself, since he needs to come up with 16 weekly topics. This information is added to the ChemE Librarian Blog and Twitter as a supplement his outreach efforts, and are geared towards graduate students and faculty.

Karen Vagts from Tufts University discussed her collaboration between the library and career development center. Building relationships with career staff can benefit the students, and staff can cross-promote their services.

Bob Schwartzwalder from Stanford discussed digitization of maps, as they are seeing a growing interest in maps and geospatial information. This project is at the “fusion of library’s and IT.” A rare map collection will be digitzed using their new map digitization faculty and a suite of services will be offered. 3D maps with fly-through, 2D maps with ability to compare, resize, and view various thematic views, also, geo-referencing maps in Google Earth.

Karen Andrews at UC Davis, worked with a professor to create small modules using Camtasia to help students learn library resources, such as using Web of Science or Avoiding Plagiarism.

Tracey Primich from Vanderbilt U enthusiastically shared her plan of attack when working with “the dreaded freshmen seminar” for the library-required session.  She gave it a new twist by calling it "Visual Display of Quantitative Information" and uses Edward Tufte’s book. Each assignment required the use of library resources. Had fun teaching students to “lie with data.”  Leveraged Tufte’s opinionated text to foster discussion with students. High student ratings ensued. Allowed Primich to build more interactions with School of Engineering.

Daureen Nesdill, Data Curation Librarian at U of Utah shared her knowledge of ELN or Electronic Laboratory Notebooks, which have been used in industry but not adopted widely within higher education. “This is the lab bench of the future.” The people-side, ELN allows for provenance, validation (date, time stamps, e-signatures), and sharing data with colleagues. Researchers who oversees labs can use this data from the ELN to take a bigger picture look at the researcher happening in his/her lab.
Librarians role? Well, we are already helping with data management plans, institutional repositories, and so on. We need to move back a stage to assist researchers at the grant and data generation phase.

Debbie Morrow at Grand Valley State University has an ABET visit coming up, so library came into the picture with ABET3, lifelong learning. The library had developed IL Core Competencies and worked with curriculum coordinator of engineering 220 course to embed information skills.

Najwa Hanel, from University of Southern California discussed her work with a large population of international students and collaborations with other departments on campus to ensure that these students succeed.

Martin Wallace, University of Maine, offered a brief ACRL IL standards and STEM standards comparison. STEM 3 areas of emphasis:
1. Rapid pace of change within disciplines, need to maintain currency
2. STEM information pose challenges in identifying, evaluating, acquiring, and using information (varied formats, specialized software, etc)
3. Competencies extend beyond IL to software, simulations, etc. 

Why is this important? Mapping with ABET and helps us focus on these more specialized standards for assessment.

Julia Gelfand from UC Irvine discussed her numerous outreach venues and librarians' transitions to new roles. They support engineering societies on campus, connect with student groups and associations, engage students during National Engineering Week. They are now working with Engineers without Borders on campus. She leads journal reading groups for alumni. The “payoff not only in dollars but commitment.” Ask what you can do to extend your own library services.

Space Planning and Changing Library Landscapes & a bit about the 4 ELD posters too

Student users get their say: Library space redesign with students in mind - Mary Strife, West Virginia University

Surveys, focus groups and interviews of students were used to help redesign the library space. Dr. Cindy Beacham helped with Mary with the design process. Also they were able to enlist faculty to help. One faculty brought her entire class for a focus group.

During focus groups they used color coded index cards as well with focus group questions such as “what would you suggest to improve” and then gave cards back to students and asked them to work together to categorize the cards. Then the facilitators used the categories as the focus for discussions. Dr. Beacham recommended also bringing some “jumpstart” questions in case they are needed. Another question they used to solicit information and discussion from students was: “what characteristics would you like to see in a facility that would become the heart of the campus?” To capture student input they recorded and video recorded the students in order to create a report on their findings.

Students asked for many things. They were actually able to add: study rooms, color, individual spaces, more comfortable seating, more desktop and laptop computers, wireless connection extended outside of the building, and so forth. Students wanted design/display space to share their work with the entire campus. They shrank down their journal and reference shelving, improved furnishings, and now that have one service desk.

Stanford Engineering Library —Envisioning an Evolving Facility - Sarah Lester, Stanford University

In 2005, Stanford School of Engineering started fundraising for new student-focused, technologically-advanced showcase center. In addition, they will be focusing on innovation through cross-disciplinary collaboration. In parallel, the University Librarian began a visioning process for the library. The vision for the future library included: digital focus, less space with more staff, innovation and more technology. The library is moving into the Huang Engineering Center which in addition the library will include a café, lab spaces for students, and breakout rooms with flexible furnishings. They'll be moving into this new space later this summer.

Within the library, they have designated zones, quiet area & stacks, group study & brainstorming islands, and front entrance zone with offices and circulation. The library is moving from 16,000 sq ft to 6000 and they will maintain a collection of 20,000 print books and supplemented with 40K+ ebooks. They have no bound print serials and only have 100 print browsing. The overall plan includes: ejournals, ebooks, and moving fully to electronic theses and dissertations. Many of their print serials were sent to off-site storage which has 24 hr paging service. The Stanford Physics Library is closing, so librarian supporting Physics will move into this new engineering library space.

A few cool things: RFID tags for all books, self-checkout system, librarians no longer have offices, they will be in cubicles in the open area of the library, all furniture movable, they are lowering stacks to optimize lighting. They retained a special collection of the history of science and technology.

New Library technology: digital bulletin board, ereader checkouts (Kindle/Sony are very popular with students and they may buy and add content to them, but deleted upon return), touch screen info kiosk, iPhone for reference questions, iPad for content experimentation.

They are rolling out a new service & outreach model, being more embedded and going where the students are. Offering more classes and workshops. All librarians have laptops so ability to go “mobile” and to the users. They are now helping faculty and students on management of unique collections and digital content and data management. See their web site for more details.

Spaces, Relocation and Subject Synergies When a Subject Libraries Change - Jill Powell, Cornell University

The library that is the fastest growing on campus is the Annex Library. At Cornell, libraries are in transition due to financial issues, library budget reductions, and serials inflation among other factors. The strategic plan focused on collections and selectors.

The Physical Sciences librarian was cutting journals that got more than 300 uses per year, so was fine with consolidation with another campus library. They could then have funds to provide journals faculty/students need. Arts, Architecture and Visual library was identified as important to maintain as a browse-able collection. Management, Entomology, Engineering, Ornithology, Hotel, Physical Sciences, and Industrial & Labor Relations libraries are merging with others.

The vision for the engineering library was to keep services in place, but to move books and journals and staff. Moves will not happen until next summer, although the Physical Sciences Library has already relocated staff and collections. The Engineering Library has 500 reserve books and 350,000 gate count per year. More ways of generating revenue or saving money are in place. They sold their duplicates to a sister university in China for instance. Also, Cornell implemented Amazon print on demand. A new revenue model for ArXiv was devised to help support this global site.

In the engineering library, the librarians remain for the most part, but there will be some layoffs. Also, the study hall and computer lab will remain open and they are moving many books to Annex. For collections, like Stanford, there’s a shift to online content. They implemented MyiLibrary for purchase-on-demand which seems fairly seamless for users to view an ebook they are interested in.

Should libraries that are consolidating remove and/or also consolidate their web sites? At Cornell they haven’t removed the libraries from their web site it seems.


For journals that come with online equivalents, they will display for 6 months and then discard them. Make, Oil & Gas Journal are a few that Cornell has figured out how to “script” into these for their users online (some are one user at a time).

The good news is that cost-savings due to library consolidation will allow librarians (and users) to buy research materials needed as budgets shift and transitions take place. With the relocation of books there are many possibilities for creating new spaces for group study and collaboration areas.

It was recognized at the highest level that the librarians provide a lot of value and more instruction opportunities have out of this process.

ELD Poster Sessions:

Seeking and Finding the Aerospace Literature from 1996-2010: And, the Winner Is . . . Google - Larry Thompson
Thompson looked at STAR items (mostly tech reports and memoranda) and found google to be the most useful in sleuthing out the full text.
The Engineering Index: The Past and the Present - Nestor OsorioA timeline was presented, the history of this index.

AVS: Science and Technology Virtual Museum – Susan Burkett, Cameron Patterson, and Nicholas A. Kraft A student project involving development of a web site for a museum.

An Analysis of ASEE-ELD Conference Proceedings: 2000-2009 - David Hubbard
New Knovel Interface - Sasha Gurke

Outreach and Beyond: New Roles/Relationships for Librarians

Summer Engineering Experience for Girls (SEE): An Evolving Hands-On Role for the Engineering Librarian - Donna Beck, G. Berard, Bo Baker, and Nancy George


Lesley Farmer, a librarian, wrote Teen Girls and Technology: What’s the Problem and Where’s the Solution, a book highly recommended by Donna Beck. All parents, teachers, librarians have a role in changing the stereotypes that are created about engineers and scientists. Gender Inclusive Engineering Education is another recently published book that is recommended.

Beck shared her experiences and involvement with SEE (Summer Engineering Experience) a 2-week program provided for ~22 middle school girls at Carnegie Mellon University each year. A research component is provided by CMU librarians. Topics cover a broad range of energy research. Librarians used AccessScience and their energy quiz. Compared a library research databases to FBI fingerprint database and steps to library research, but their teaching with the young woman has evolved over the past few years. The following year they worked more on defining a lesson plan and hands-on activities. Third year librarians were included in planning activities for SEE and librarians were participating in 3 sessions and helped to mentor the students. They provided citation help (bibme/knightcite), creating their PowerPoint slides, and it was an enhanced experience for all.

Tips:

• Purchase women and engineering books

• Express willingness to contribute to outreach programs

• Be compatible with program and its evolution

• Help inspire middle schools to consider engineering as a career choice

Academic Librarians' Roles in Attracting & Recruiting Students to Their University - Nevenka Zdravkovska, Jim Miller, and Bob Kackley

Jim Miller, from University of Maryland Libraries described how librarians work with K-12 students and the potential for librarian involvement in university recruitment efforts. Over the past year ~22 sessions were offered to area high school and home schooled students, so they have a lot of interaction with HS students. He found there is not much research on libraries playing role on recruitment. UM recruitment efforts include:

• Maryland day

• Special collections state-wide history day

• Performing Arts Library assists home schooled students and music lessons

• Academic Achievement (TRIO) involvement – UM Librarians assist provisionally accepted minorities

• Various summer activities with special groups

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Library partners with many of UM outreach programs such as ESTEEM, Project Lead the Way, among others. They instruct PLTW Inventor’s campers on patent searching. Student teams find hovercraft patents (good example for getting students to use classification searches). See ASEE First Bell for daily examples on how universities are doing K-12 outreach.

Creating an Outreach Event with e-Resource Providers - Pauline Melgoza

Science/Engineering Library held an event in fall 2009. They held an outreach fair in their engineering building lobby. Over 500 researchers and students attended.

Melgoza suggested we partner with database vendors to market the event, train and also provide financial support. Texas A&M requested items from vendors posters, training guides, giveaways for students and raffle prizes to draw people in and ask vendors to come and staff a table. Some vendors sponsored competition or drawing (Knovel Challenge & IEEE regional student paper contest are two examples). Some vendors will help fund food or provide financial support. Melgoza selected top use database vendors as well as some that have low use but should have higher use. This fall they are considering doing web-conferencing. With curtains around the IEEE section, Melgoza felt this created a mystique that enticed students to check the area out (they could also smell food).

Planning Tips

• contact vendors a couple months in advance

• talk with peers for ideas

• consider location, location, location (captive audience in engineering building but took more coordination)

• check university policies and keep administration in the loop (some university’s cannot do vendors fairs due to conflict of interest)

• If you get materials from vendor, but no vendor, train library assistants to staff tables

• prizes are a big draw for students, also food; incorporate survey with raffle entry

• if you cannot plan a larger event, one librarian mentioned success with inviting one vendor and setting up demo’s in different locations on campus

• Count attendees & take photos to share

• Tie in with faculty: one librarian mentioned that a faculty member asked students to attend with specific questions

From the New Engineering Librarians Perspective: Collaborations & Online Tutorials

Collaboration with faculty: What they don’t teach you in library school

Sarah Jane Dooley presented various strategies for connecting with faculty, from the perspective of a new librarian. Dooley suggests getting to know department faculty, familiarize yourself with subject area and specialties of faculty, as well as discipline specific resources and publishers. It’s important to consider varying interpersonal and communication strategies of the faculty you are working with. Don’t pass on any opportunity to attend social events on campus. This is great way to network with other faculty and meet future collaborators. Librarians must create their own opportunities to network by being visible on campus, taking every opportunity as it presents itself using both online and offline approaches.

Dooley recommends that the workplace should develop documentation for new librarians and be good role models. A mentoring program for new staff could help. Library School’s could include more education on best practices for networking outside the profession. In working with faculty, she suggests that technology presents interesting opportunities to collaborate, even allowing faculty to use libguides themselves and use of facebook for promotion. Contact Sara Jane Dooley at sdooley@dal.ca and for a copy of her handout which including the above strategies and more as well as a bibliography.

Continuing Library Instruction via Online Tutorials
Megan Tomeo, Arthur Lakes Library, Colorado School of Mines
Challenge: Librarians don’t get enough contact with students in order to help them develop their research skills.

Solution: Mini-grant from university to build online tutorials which are delivered through partnerships with a sophomore-level course (a continuation of their existing first year level instruction modules which CSM talked about at last year’s ASEE Annual Conference). Also, they collaborated with the senior level capstone sections.

Benefits: No space or face-time needed for virtual learning. Can be designed while at reference desk where they have installed Captivate to create the tutorials. CSM librarians created many modules with similar look and each incorporated at least one competency from CSM and integrated quizzes. In the future, they hope to enhance the tutorials with more interactivity.

Assessment: Tomeo administered a three-part survey, one portion was a self-assessment of student learning. The pre-survey was administered to help staff understand student recall from the first year research instruction. A post-survey later assessed learning within the sophomore/junior year. They used a control group and these students took the surveys but were not directed to use the online tutorials. Survey return rate was 52% but less than 30 pre- and post-pairs were ultimately useful for analyzing the pre- and post survey results.

Results: Test group improved scores by 13% but control group had a slight negative change. Tomeo feels the tutorials are impacting learning in a positive way. In 2007, at University of Washington, Whang, et al. study on evaluating student bibliographies could be another approach, but in the future she hopes to consider if given consent by students involved.
To view the tutorials connect to http://library.mines.edu/reference/epics251/
After August 1, 2009: Library.mines.edu > Services > Library Instruction > Online Tutorials
Another point to ponder: students commented that they preferred the 50 minute session in-person with the librarians vs. the online tutorials.

Teaming with Possibilities: Working Together to Engage with Engineering Faculty and Students
Janet Fransen and Jon Jeffryes, Engineering Libraries, University of Minnesota
Fransen and Jeffryes both support hundreds of faculty in the school of engineering and more than 3000 students.

Overview of three engagement strategies:
1. Marketing
a. Have a web presence: they create a page for each librarian, news for each area (mechanical, biomedical) and uses flickr to find interesting photos/images to include.
b. Use social media: they created a twitter account (umsciref), they also suggest you search twitter for your library’s name to get the pulse, if any. They created a facebook page and import their twitter feed into fb, they have also used fb ads to promote their page.
c. Measure results: they use bit.ly (cool and seemingly useful URL shortener) when they post URLs do they can collect data on number of clicks on the links you create (they created a spreadsheet using bit.ly API to grab click stats)
d. Be present: visiting seminars on campus, etc.

2. Instruction
a. Course-based live: They work with senior level engineering courses and since there are more than 100 students they are looking into team teaching
b. Library workshop series: EndNote, Zotero, Engineering: find better information faster, etc. check their web site for more. They have also started recording and posting screen captures as a supplement. They are often team-taught and can create a dynamic atmosphere. They use Moodle pages for workshops and this can be a time saver for staff. Users can refer back to these pages for instruction and future self-help.
c. Course-based online: Jon built 90 unique course pages for each class (without asking first!) and this worked well for him.
d. Tutorials: they created one on patents

3. Scholarly Communication & Institutional Repository (UDC)
a. Posted professor’s papers and they provide the faculty member with statistics on downloads
b. IR gives librarians an opportunity to get out and talk with faculty and by viewing their publication listed they can determine whether or not they are a good candidate for including papers within their digital repository.