The Emerging Career of
Data Librarianship
in Academic Libraries
Hailey Mooney
Data Services and Reference Librarian
Michigan State University Libraries
Contact Information:
mooneyh@msu.edu
http://dataservices.lib.msu.edu
What is data (to a data librarian)?

Data as a primary
source

Types of Data
–
Numeric

Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
–
Machine-readable data
files
Non-numeric

Traditional primary
sources: private
documents (letters,
diaries), media (written
record, oral record, films,
photographs), physical
materials
Types of Numeric Data in the Social Sciences

Primary Data (Researcher created)
–
Surveys

Micro level (individuals)
–

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Cross sectional or longitudinal
 Social, economic, demographic
Macro level (aggregations)
Secondary/Archival Data (Created for purposes other
than academic research)
–
–
Administrative Records
Government, business
Data vs. Statistics
Data Archives

Inter-University
Consortium for Political
and Social Research
(ICPSR)

Subject-specific
–
–
–

University
–

Roper Center Public Opinion
Archives
Cultural Policy and the Arts
National Data Archive
(CPANDA)
Association of Religion Data
Archives (ARDA)
University of Wisconsin Data
& Information Services
Center (UW DISC)
International
–
German Social Science
Infrastructure Services
Association (GESIS)
Evolution of Social Science Data
and Quantitative Research
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1896 Herman Hollerith forms the Tabulating Machine Company, a predecessor of IBM
1897 Emile Durkheim publishes Suicide
1935 Dr. George Gallup founds the American Institute of Public Opinion
1940 the Current Population Survey is established
1947 Roper Center for Public Opinion Research founded
1948 National Election Studies begin
1951 UNIVAC, the first civilian computer is delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau
1962 ICPSR founded
1968 Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software is first released
1972 Nat’l Opinion Research Center (NORC) conducts first General Social Survey (GSS)
1974 First Internat’l Assoc. of Soc. Sci. Info. Service & Tech. (IASSIST) Conference
1981 Internat’l Business Machines (IBM) releases the Personal Computer
1982 Library Trends special issue on “Data Libraries for the Social Sciences”
1985 National Science Foundation begins to require data sharing
1994 ICPSR launches first WWW homepage
1997 Fedstats.gov is launched
1998 ICPSR data is available for download from the WWW
2001 Numeric Data Products and Services SPEC Kit published
Library Data Services

“The mission of Michigan
State University Library
Data Services is to make
numeric data resources
available to students,
faculty and staff to
support curricular,
research, and general
information needs.”

Services Provided:
–
–
–
Data Set Identification
(Reference)
Instructional Support
Data Set Acquisitions
Library Units and Data
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Public Services
Collections
Digital Information
Research Data Management Forum: RDMF2: Core Skills Diagram http://data-forum.blogspot.com/2008/12/rdmf2-core-skillsdiagram.html as cited in Pryor, G. & Donnelly, M. (2009). Skilling up to do data: Whose role, whose responsibility, whose career?.
International Journal of Digital Curation, 2 (4): 158-170.
Data Reference

Reference Interview: Define the Unit of Analysis
–
–
–

Accessing Research Data
–

Who or what? (social unit)
When? (time)
Where? (geography)
Has it been collected, published, distributed?
Data Librarian’s Toolkit
–
Traditional library resources and search strategies

–
–
Research Guides
http://dataservices.lib.msu.edu
Data archives
Telephone/Email
Professional Development and
Research Interests

IASSIST: International
Association for Social
Science Information
Service and Technology

Scholarly
communication, data
sharing and citations
The Context for Data
Citations
Information Standards
Publishing:
Journals, Books, etc.
Research Data
Use & Reuse
Data Sharing
Style Manuals
Citations
Data Citations
Library Systems:
Organization,
Search, Retrieval
Reference Desk:
Known-item searches
Citation Analysis
Behavior
Motivations
Scholarly Communication
Creation  Evaluation  Dissemination  Preservation
Do authors cite data?

Sometimes, but not consistently!
Frequency of Data Citations
yes
39%
no
61%
n=49
Training for Data Librarians
Data Services
 Foundation
–
MLIS

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Relevant coursework:
Research Methods,
Advanced Reference,
Government Information
Social Science B.A. (or
statistics)
On-the-job experience and
support
Professional Associations and
Networks
–
Data Curation/Management
 Foundation
ICPSR Summer Institute
MLIS

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
Relevant coursework:
archives and preservation,
computer programs and
systems, metadata
On-the-job experience and
support
Professional Associations and
Networks
–
Digital Curation Centre,
ICPSR Digital Curation
Questions?
Selected Resources
Altman, M., & King, G. (2007). A proposed standard for the scholarly citation of quantitative data. D-Lib Magazine,
13(3/4). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1045/march2007-altman
Cook, M. N. C., Hernandez, J. J. C., & Nicholson, S. C. (2001). Numeric Data Products and Services. SPEC Kit (pp.
93): Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC. Office of Leadership and Management Services.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED463758) Retrieved from ERIC.
Digital Curation Centre website: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
Green, T. (2009). We need publishing standards for datasets and data tables OECD Publishing White Paper. Paris:
OECD Publishing. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/603233448430
Griffiths, A. (2009). The publication of research data: Researcher attitudes and behaviors. The International Journal
of Digital Curation, 4(1), 46-56. Retrieved from http://www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/viewFile/101/76
IASSIST website: http://www.iassistdata.org/
ICPSR website: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu.
Mahoe, R. (2004). Reflections on the Dissertation Process and the Use of Secondary Data. Educational
Perspectives, 37(2), 34-37. Retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/edper/pdf/Vol37Iss2/Reflections.pdf
Nelson, B. (2009). Empty Archives. Nature, 461(7261), 160-163.
Olken, F., & Gey, F. (2006). Social science data library manifesto. Retrieved from
https://hpcrd.lbl.gov/staff/olken/ssdl/ssdl_manifesto.html
Read, E. J. (2007). Data Services in Academic Libraries: Assessing Needs and Promoting Services. Reference &
User Services Quarterly, 46(3). Retrieved from http://www.rusq.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/46n3/read.pdf