From Big Data to the Big Picture

Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne

From Big

Data to the

Big Picture

#SAGETalks


Caroline Muglia, Head of Resource Sharing and Collection

Assessment Librarian at University of Southern California,

manages the Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery

department and leads the collection assessment efforts for

the Library. Before this position, Caroline worked at the

Library of Congress and later as a Data Librarian for an

educational technology company.

Jill Parchuck has been the Associate University Librarian

for Science, Social Science and Medicine at Yale

University since 2014. Other positions Jill has held at Yale

include Director, Science and Social Science Libraries and

Co-Director of the Center for Science and Social Science

Information from 2010 to 2014 and Director of Social

Science Libraries and Information Services from 2007 to

2010.

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Introduction

• Big data initiatives are plentiful!

• Libraries can play an important role• What steps can librarians take to contribute to big data

projects?

• How can libraries add value to big data projects?

• How can libraries determine the needs for data support?

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Areas we will cover

I. Datasets (Homegrown and Purchased)

II. Licensing Data

III. Storage and Repositories

IV.Software and Tools

V. Looking Ahead

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What is Big Data?

• Volume: Amount of data being created and ingested.

What qualifies as “big”?

• Variety: Number of types of data

• Velocity: Speed at which data is being created and

processed

• Value: How data is being analyzed and utilized

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Homegrown Datasets

Guiding question:

● Who is creating datasets and how?

● What are the uses of the datasets?

● Where are the datasets stored?

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• Created by researchers

• Spatial Sciences student

projects

• USC Neuroimaging and

Informatics

• Created by Partnerships

• Big Data for Discovery Science

• Libraries

• USC Shoah Digital Library (8-

petabytes)

• Created by researchers

• Institution for Social and

Policy Studies (ISPS)

• Yale Open Data Access

Project (YODA)

• Yale Proteomics Expression

Database (YPEDS)

• Produced by administrative

units of the institution

• Yale Sustainability

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https://news.usc.edu/115324/usc-spatial-sciences-students-analyze-crime-patterns-in-l-a/

http://www.ini.usc.edu/

http://bd2k.ini.usc.edu/

http://vhaonline.usc.edu/login

http://isps.yale.edu/research/data

http://www.medicine.yale.edu/core/current_projects/yodap/

http://sustainability.yale.edu/research-education/campus-living-lab


Purchased DatasetsGuiding questions:

● In what format does the library receive the datasets?

● Where are the datasets stored?

● What kind of access do users have?

● How can users discover the datasets?

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• Subject specialist receives request from researchers and places

order

• Data librarian receives and manages data and places it on local

server

• Cataloger creates records for the online discovery system

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Licensing Data

Guiding questions:

● What are the terms of use?

● Access vs. ownership?

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• Review criteria of license

• Ensure the widest possible use of content

• Ensure that a viable platform is available to provide access

• Ensure that metadata can be provided

• Can we retain a backup copy?

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Storage & RepositoriesGuiding questions:

● How much storage space is needed?

● What do we need the repository to do?

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• USC Digital Repository

• ICPSR

• Departments/Schools

• Contract to repositories

• Purchase server space

from university

• Smaller data sets

• External hard drives

• Registry of Research Data

Repositories

• ICPSR - Inter-university

Consortium for Political and

Social Research

• Yale Social Science Data

Archive - all in local discovery

system

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https://repository.usc.edu/

http://www.re3data.org

https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/


Services for Analyzing Big

DataGuiding questions:

● Who owns the data? what rights management is needed?

● What do you need to do?

● Who will be using the data?

● What output options do you need to have?

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Support For Using Data

• Organizing data

• Statistical analysis

• Cleaning data

• Manipulating data

• Managing data

• Data Visualization

• Retaining data

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• Libraries

• Subject librarians

cultivate different skills

• Tableau license

• University-wide

• SC-CTSI (Clinical Data

Analysis)

• Center for High

Performance Computing

(HPC)

• Yale Center for Science and

Social Science Information

(CSSSI) - data services

• Yale StatLab Consultants -

statistical analysis

• CSSSI Research Data

Management - guide

• Yale Research Data

Consultation Group

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http://www.sc-ctsi.org/

https://hpcc.usc.edu/

http://csssi.yale.edu/

http://csssi.yale.edu/data-and-gis/csssi-statisical-consulting/csssi-statistical-and-gis-consultants

http://guides.library.yale.edu/datamanagement?hs=a

http://researchdata.yale.edu


Looking Ahead

What can you do now?

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• Identify unique role that library can play

• Information management is a library service

• Data literacy or teaching with data; data education

• Expert trainers in Tableau, TDM tools

• Metadata expertise

• Store/make accessible other department’s raw data

• Can libraries provide analytical services?

• Learn needs of the institution

• Digital humanities projects can be a starting point

• Identify stakeholders

• Vendors and librarians can act as research partners

• Unique relationship that other departments may not have

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http://libguides.usc.edu/teachingwithdata

http://researchdata.yale.edu/workshops-events


Future considerations

What should you be prepared to handle in the near

future?

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• Data management plans

• NSF data management requirements

• Open data

• Open Government

• Los Angeles Open City

• Open Science

• Data science

• More students trained in Data Science-increased knowledge on campus

• What is library’s role (Instruction, Collection Development) in meeting

these research needs, but also in capitalizing on them?

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https://www.nsf.gov/eng/general/dmp.jsp

https://www.data.gov/open-gov/

https://data.lacity.org/

http://www.youtube.com/


Webinar recording, slides, and follow-up Q&A will be emailed to you and available on connection.sagepub.com.

Thank you!

Be sure to check our website for updates on our webinar series!

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Education

From Big Data to the Big Picture