Data Services Committee
Meeting Agenda
Monday, March 26, 2012
11:00-12:00
Library 428
Attendees: Merinda Hensley, Jenny Johnson, Lura Joseph, Dawn Owens-Nicholson, Carissa Phillips,
Sarah Shreeves, Sarah Williams, Maryalice Wu
1. Data consultation hours
a. Traffic, questions, and feedback. Dawn reported seeing about 10 unique visitors to 314 so far
this semester.
b. Promotions
i. Marketing Grant Award--$392.75. A one-time 1/8th ad has been submitted for the April 5
edition of Inside Illinois. Pending efforts include a one-time ad in the Daily Illini; 500-7” x 5”
postcards; and 10-8” x 11” posters. Suggestions were solicited for the graphic design for the
cards and posters, and a suggestion was made to include QR codes. The Library’s Strategic
Communications and Marketing Committee needs a report on how these efforts work to
generate traffic. One suggestion was to put pads of paper on the desks in the Scholarly
Commons to remind everyone to ask users how they heard about the data consultation
hours.
ii. To promote the Survey Research Lab hours in the Scholarly Commons, a suggestion was
made to send notices to Eweek and GradLinks.
2. Readme Files
a. Discussion of/agreement on elements.
i. “Format” will be added to the elements. Beyond that, everything will stand from previous
discussions about readme files, and Eric’s example that he put together for the Chicago and
New York neighborhoods dataset.
b. Selection of 2010 Data Purchases. The group divided up the creation of readme files as follows.
Files will be emailed to the teams since not all can access the Library’s G drive.
i. Black elected officials data—Mary Alice and Carissa
ii. Villages in Hamachal Pradesh, India (GIS file)—Dawn, Jenny, and Lura
iii. APA elections data—Sarah W. and Merinda
iv. General overview of all—Eric and Sarah S.
3. Data Literacy in Workshops
a. Start the discussion--ideas for evaluating? We decided that this discussion is something that
should happen later, but in general, the intention will be to map data literacy elements to what
is being taught in the workshops. Discussions included the GIS workshops in the Savvy
Researcher series; efforts to promote ICPSR workshops to increase turnout; and the suggestion
of sciences-focused data management workshops as a potential Savvy Researcher topic. Other
venues, perhaps within departments, will be considered for conducting Savvy Researcher
workshops. Another suggestion was to partner with the Graduate College to integrate Savvy
Researcher workshops into its series on professional life after graduation.
4. Updates/Announcements
a. Data Purchase Brownbags
i. Jake Bowers and Cara Wong—7 attendees
ii. Ashwini Chhatre speaking on Thursday-- trade in Khair in Himachal Pradesh, India. March 29,
12:30-1:30, 428 Library.
iii. Anna Popova, April 25, 12:30-1:30, 428 Library
b. Next meeting—possible visit from Karen, Tom Teper, and Wendy Shelburne regarding data
purchase program. There was general consensus that the timing is right for this discussion.
c. Other. Updates on the Scholarly Commons’ move to Library 306.