IASSIST Communiqué

The Skills, Role and Career Structure of Data Scientists: An Assessment of Current Practice and Future Needs is a report prepared by Alma Swan and Sheridan Brown this summer for JISC in the UK.

Ours is a profession that is not highly visible. This report will be welcomed by any data librarians or data archivists who have had trouble explaining what they do at parties, and especially those who have had trouble getting a pay rise or a promotion based on the value added work they do for researchers vis a vis working with data.

It was the NSF/NSB who first drew attention to the plight of “data scientists” and the poorly developed career paths of researchers who specialise in working with data within research groups in their Long-Lived Digital Data Collections report in 2005. This study also examined the situation of specialists working in domain-specific data centres or data archives.

Her treatment of data librarians poses the potential for academic libraries to get further involved with research data curation.

The current report draws on that as well as Liz Lyon’s UK JISC-commissioned report in 2007 on Dealing with data: roles, responsibilities and relationships.

Luis Martinez Uribe has written a summary of the report on the DataShare blog.

Robin Rice
EDINA and Data Library
University of Edinburgh

Research Data Strategy Working Group Established http ://cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/media/press/rds_group_e.html, press release, August 12, 2008.

The research process generates huge amounts of data that are an important part of Canada’s scholarly record and hold enormous potential as an additional discovery and problem-solving tool for
researchers. Unfortunately, Canada has no nationally adopted standards or policies governing how this data is collected, catalogued, or preserved.

A new collaborative effort is now underway to address the challenges surrounding the access and preservation of this data. The Research Data Strategy (RDS) Working Group
http://data-donnees.gc.ca/eng/members.html is a multi-disciplinary group of universities, institutes, libraries, granting agencies, and individual researchers with a shared recognition of the pressing
need to deal with Canadian data management issues.

Together, the Working Group is focusing on the necessary actions, next steps and leadership roles that researchers and institutions can take to ensure Canada’s research data is accessible and usable
for current and future generations of researchers.

To support this effort, the Working Group has launched the Research Data Canada Web site http ://data-donnees.gc.ca/eng/index.html as a tool to communicate with the broader community and to facilitate communication within and between three task groups, which have been formed to explore issues related to policies, funding and research; infrastructure and services; and capacity (skills, training, and
reward systems).

The RDS Working Group will be convening a consultation around these issues at a future date to gather input and develop an action plan.

The IASSIST Quarterly (IQ Vol. 31 issue 1 - 2007) is now available on the web:

http://iassistdata.org/publications/iq/iqvol31.html

Welcome to the first issue of the IASSIST Quarterly, vol. 31. We have passed the 34th IASSIST conference, also known as the Stanford IASSIST 2008 conference - best ever. However, the IASSIST Quarterly vol. 31 is known also as the 2007 volume. Yes, we are behind our schedule; but at least we are consistently so. Our lack of currentness is not critical. We do not expect to bring you the weather forecast. The spring issue might be out when leaves are turning. And that would be ok. But staying in tune with the seasons by lacking a year is somehow annoying. And with production we are even missing that. One way of bringing us more in sync with the reality of time is by IASSIST members not only going to the conferences, and not only presenting at the conferences, but by changing their presentation into an article for the wider public. By doing so you get the extra bonus of having your writing reviewed and proofed and thus ending up with a much better product.

At the IASSIST 2007 conference in Montreal in a session named “New Discovery Tools: Thinking Outside the Catalogue” Taina Jääskeläinen and Tuomas J. Alaterä from the Finnish Social Science Data Archive gave a presentation on “Multilingual Web Services - Possibilities and Pitfalls”. In turning this presentation into an article they qualified the first part into “Multilingual Web Services of Data Archives”. In their article, the first in this issue of the IQ, they share their experience of setting up a website supporting the Finnish, English and also Swedish languages. One serious problem of multilingual websites happens when the user clicks from a page in his preferred language onto what is for him an incomprehensible webpage in the dominant language of the site. For data archives effective retrieval of datasets is a necessity, and it is typically the documentation at the study level that is being searched. Many archives have study descriptions in English for exactly that purpose. If that is not available the authors recommend detailed contact information in order to obtain more information about the datasets.

The second article is from Eun-ha Hong at Wilfred Laurier University and Linda Lowry at Brock University. They are both employed as “business and economics librarians” at their respective universities and they present “Business data: issues and challenges from the Canadian perspective”. The article was presented at the IASSIST 2007 conference in the session on “Data Services mash-ups: Maps, Research and Everything!”. I find that the Hong and Lowry paper is mostly about research. Their goal is to start a discussion about key challenges in supporting the teaching and research use of business data. They refer to observations about the growing importance of datasets, and continue with the categorization and trends of business data. There is a trend showing a growing demand in business data; unfortunately the business data often is the product of business models. Or to put it bluntly - the data is expensive. The authors show the uneven distribution of their selection of four core numeric business databases among Ontario universities. Within the business school area, there is the same discussion as elsewhere concerning support for data users when most librarians are not sufficiently educated in that type of data use. A “community of practice” is proposed; IASSIST is seen as a natural home for this and also as reaching a critical mass for convincing the commercial data vendors. I hope the article will bring fruitful discussions at the coming conference.

The last article in this issue is “A Survey Data Archive Network in Africa - Possibilities and Practicalities” by Lynn Woolfrey from the University of Cape Town. Woolfrey is the Data Manager at the DataFirst Survey Data Archive at the university. The point of departure for the article is that survey data archives have two central functions; they both facilitate data sharing and assist in safeguarding the quality of the data shared. Data archives share their data in networks on regional and global scales. However, this type of network is lacking in Africa and the article looks into the possibility of establishing such a network there. Lynn Woolfrey argues for the importance of social survey data in policy-making for social and economic development. The vital role of quantitative data in the development of the African continent was acknowledged in a UN draft charter. The support for statistical agencies would be complemented by a network of survey data archives. Some of the obstacles for this positive development are mentioned: lack of data sharing culture, lack of resources including skilled staff, technical and logistical issues, as well as language where research uses several languages (though that is not as many as in Europe, I could add). A first start in this direction resulted from the 2007 IASSIST conference, with the establishment of an African mailing list with representatives from South Africa, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Niger, and Uganda. With the need and the rationale for the establishment of the network, and with the support from participants in similar networks, the development of an African survey data network will be interesting to follow.

Happy reading.

Articles for the IASSIST Quarterly are very welcome. Articles can be papers from IASSIST conferences, from other conferences, from local presentations, discussion input, etc. Contact the editor via e-mail: kbr@sam.sdu.dk.

Best regards, Karsten

Karsten Boye Rasmussen, editor of the IASSIST Quarterly, kbr@sam.sdu.dk,
Marketing & Management, SDU, University of Southern Denmark +45 6550 2115

Regardless of the institutional setting in which we work, more and more of us are having to address researcher access to restricted or confidential datasets.  This post focuses on sessions at Stanford that covered this important topic–or rather, group of topics because there are so many intersecting responsibilities to actually making such access a reality for our users.

Lisa Neider’s poster session focused on the practicalities of “Administering Restricted Data Contracts.”  In particular, her handout provided “natural language” tips when working with the agreements required by data distributors.

I also attended Friday’s paper session, “Licensing, Privacy, and Protection. ” Many of us now interact with Institutional Review Boards (IRB) in our respective institutions.  It’s not easy to balance the needs of researchers, expectations of the IRBs, and requirements of data collectors and distributors.  Summaries of the presentations follow. Admittedly, they focus on the things that I found interesting–so do comment on the points I’ve missed!

Amy Pienta (ICPSR) was unable to present in person, but session chair Libbie Stephenson discussed the high points and forwarded Amy’s excellent handouts.  They review the many (many) issues involved with data deposit and retention, ownership and distribution rights, and respondent protection.  Although the paper focused on retention and archiving, the more memorable elements covered information loss. A couple chilling scenarios suffice.  An estimated 20% of data collected with NIH funding are never archived.  Significant amounts of data are discarded due to retention (or rather, nonretention policies) or misinterpretation of institutional or publication guidelines.  In particular, limited retention guidelines (such as those of APA) appear to give researchers a green light to dump their data. 

Thomas Lindsay (University of Minnesota) started with an historical overview on evolution of IRBs in the United States.  Review panels are largely populated by senior researchers. Although they bring substantial research experience to the table, their perspectives regarding security measures (the “locked file cabinet” approach) reflect traditional methodologies that don’t translate completely to the digital age.  The result of IRB deliberations is, too often, inconsistent application of guidelines.  Such case-by-case review can inadvertently feed investigator disillusionment with the IRB process.  Data professionals can play an important intermediary role between researchers and panels charged with protecting the rights of research participants. 

Libbie Stephenson (UCLA) discussed institutional review processes from the perspective of a service that supports public-use data products.  Based on interactions with a variety of players (data users, researchers seeking funding, IRB members, university legal counsel staff, and others), she’s compiled an excellent resource, Guidelines for Data Sharing and Access.  See the link from here:  http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/da/resource.htm

Pam Baxter
IASSIST U.S. Region Secretary

The June 23, 2008 issue of WIRED MAGAZINE (issue 16.07) has several stories about large datasets.

The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn’t Just More — More Is Different

Sensors everywhere. Infinite storage. Clouds of processors. Our ability to capture, warehouse, and understand massive amounts of data is changing science, medicine, business, and technology. As our collection of facts and figures grows, so will the opportunity to find answers to fundamental questions. Because in the era of big data, more isn’t just more. More is different.

The End of Theory
The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Feeding the Masses:
Data In, Crop Predictions Out

Chasing the Quark:
Sometimes You Need to Throw Information Away

Winning the Lawsuit:
Data Miners Dig for Dirt

Tracking the News:
A Smarter Way to Predict Riots and Wars

Spotting the Hot Zones:
Now We Can Monitor Epidemics Hour by Hour

Sorting the World:
Google Invents New Way to Manage Data

Watching the Skies:
Space Is Big — But Not Too Big to Map

Scanning Our Skeletons:
Bone Images Show Wear and Tear

Tracking Air Fares:
Elaborate Algorithms Predict Ticket Prices

Predicting the Vote:
Pollsters Identify Tiny Voting Blocs

Pricing Terrorism:
Insurers Gauge Risks, Costs

Visualizing Big Data:
Bar Charts for Words

– jim jacobs

Like everyone else, I’ve managed to catch up after being out of the office.  But IASSIST was worth every minute!  It was a pretty jampacked week, so I’m just getting around to blogging a few observations.

I allocated too few moments to visiting the poster sessions.  One that intrigued me was the Digital Library Federation’s American Social History Online project, or Aquifer.  (Maybe it’s the fact that I was a history major.)  Aquifer brings together fascinating resources from over 100 digital collections, all delivered right to your desktop: sheet music from the 19th century; a great photo of Teddy Roosevelt speaking to members of the National Negro Business League;  portraits of the Brooklyn Dodgers (remember them?);  a firsthand travel account of Scandinavia from 1863; U.S. political cartoons that make current caricatures look pretty tame.

Do check out Aquifer:  http://www.dlfaquifer.org/

Pam Baxter
IASSIST U.S. Region Secretary

And another conference has passed. It’s so sad to think that it will be another year before we get together again but at least we can play virtually on our lists, this blog and maybe even in SecondLife! I’m still trying to round up more conference reports but in the meantime, here’s the official conference song lyrics. Sing to the tune of The Band’s song “The Weight”

In case the tune doesn’t come to mind immediately, here’s a clip on YouTube from the movie “The Last Waltz”. Hopefully we’ll be able to scare up a video of our own “Choral Memory Action Group” performance. Kudos to composer and Action Group leader Melanie Wright for another fitting closing tune!

/san/

Pulled into Frisco, was feeling ’bout half past dead
Metadata schemas circling round my head
Version 3 will fix that, the DDI man said
Come to IASSIST with me, and at least you’ll be well fed!

Chorus
Oh the Tech of Data
Will set the data freeeee
It’s the tech of Data
And (and and and)
IASSIST (IASSIST) is the place to be

At the AC meeting, we talked of strategy
And the workshops, 8 in all, took over the library
Are you now or have ever been a cheese-eating monkey?
It’s just amazing what you can do with version 3

Chorus

Plenary speaker, was she Catherine or was she Jo?
All we know for certain is Steve’s her baby bro
Lizza only talked to Tom: fellow data geeks, you know
And in New Zealand it’s the sheep that run the show.

Mash-ups are mashtastic, may the data be with you
Who’s the guy with the mohawk? oh it’s Walter and he’s blue!
Ann Snoodle’s got a t-shirt, and look, there’s SusieQue
Welcome SecondLifers to the crazy data crew

Chorus

Keep it simple stupid, whatcha need a BMW for?
Arofan pushed SDMX and was greeted with a snore
And the Finns asked will you need me, when I’m 64?
Tried to make the 8-ball fall, and they almost broke the floor!

Torturing nurses with data can really be a blast
And the Business Meeting has never gone so fast
Don’t let Marilyn near it, if you want your machine to last
Does that make Ekke Scrooge, Bo, if you’re the ghost of Christmas past?

Chorus

Banquet drumming wowed us, baby Taiko high five dude
Potato-tinis and lots of other crazy food [is that port or pork?]
From Johnny Cash to Brick House, the band got us in the mood
Dual Turkey sessions meant we got our dose of crude

Now it’s nearly over, nearly time to say goodbye
Ron, you’ve been so special, the standard you set is high
San and Ellie can’t be beat, though Bo and Kate will try
And we’ll see you all next year, when to Finland we will fly!

Oh the tech of data
Will set the data freeeee
It’s the tech of data
and (and and and)
IASSIST (IASSIST) is the place to be

So I had the best intentions to blog the conference but alas I was distracted - creating my SecondLife avatar to be able to participate virtually as well as in reality was far more interesting than I want to admit!  My teenagers were appalled when they found out I was on Facebook - what will they say when I tell them about SusieQue!

As a technology-oriented association hosting a technology-themed conference, it is maybe not surprising that we should experiment a bit.  So the wonderful tech folks here at Stanford have created a virtual world where avatars can watch the plenaries and have virtual cookies!  My avatar is having a great time!

The conference so far has been very interesting - what a fabulous job the program committee did!  Of course their job was made easier by the fantastic submissions that IASSISTERs provided!  I’ll be canvassing those at the conference (in real life!) to see if I can get more detailed session reports to post. 

/san/

May 21, 2008 — The Alliance for the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is pleased to announce the official release of Version 3.0 of the DDI XML specification for documenting social science data. This long awaited version of the DDI represents a major advance by fully incorporating XML Schemas and moving to a data life cycle approach. We thank all the members of the DDI working groups as well as DDI users who have volunteered their time and efforts over the past years to make this specification a reality.

The Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) is a project to create an international standard in XML for metadata describing social science data. The DDI Alliance is a self-sustaining membership organization
whose members guide the development of the DDI specification.

For further information, visit http://www.ddialliance.org/ddi3/ or
contact ddi@ddialliance.org.

Mary Vardigan
Director, DDI Alliance
Assistant Director, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research (ICPSR)