Research Data Management
Services at the MIT Libraries
Amy Stout
ASEE
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 possible
about 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 projects
for 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”