Research Data Management Services at the MIT Libraries

Amy StoutASEE

June 2011

As science changes…

So do science libraries

Don’t panic!

You have the skills you need

Try new things…

Just call them “pilots”

Science changes the tools…

And the tools change science.

Our ability to produce data has outpaced

Our ability to organize and store it.

As science changes…

So do science libraries.

What can librarians do to support the new trends in science?

Learn as much as possibleabout departmental research

And the data deluge

Translate what libraries do…

Into data management services for researchers

What are our strengths?

We respond with agility to rapidly changing environments

We understand the fields we support

We know how to organize information

We know how to make information accessible

We know how to preserve information

From Science, May 23, 2011

“A data archivist would be a mix of librarian, IT expert and physicist, with the computing skills to keep porting data to new formats but savvy enough about the physics to be able to crosscheck old results on new computer systems.”

-- Rescue of Old Data Offers Lesson for Particle Physicists

How much physics do you need to know?

The original team of Google translation experts who won accolades for their excellent software that could translate Chinese and Arabic consisted of NOT ONE Chinese or Arabic speaker. – from The Most Human Human

What data management services can librarians provide?

Inform researchers of data issues that may impact them

Provide guidance on how to organize, store and preserve data

Offer solutions to data management problems

How did the MIT Libraries get started in this area?

Study group started in 2006

Broadened our membership in 2008

Services we offer our research community

http://libraries.mit.edu/data-management

Managing Research Data 101

Bioinformatics for Beginners

One-on-one consulting

• Format migration• Answering questions• Writing data management plans

The NSF Data Management Plan requirement

Radish

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/62236

How to handle non-MIT contributors?

Esoteric file formats

A preservation conundrum

Open-source software

Multiple file/zip file issues

Inconsistent metadata

Esoteric information – not for the layperson!

Future directions

Creating data profiles of individual researchers

And data audits of whole departments

Developing a service model for assisting researchers in the lab

Outreach to liaison librarians

Support more projectsfor DSpace@MIT

Remember…

• As science changes, so do science libraries• Don’t panic! You have the skills you need• Try new things… just call them “pilots”