Is it worth it? Weighing the benefits of research data management infrastructure for the library

Sponsored by Figshare
Recorded on 04/20/2023

Posted in Open Access and Open Educational Resources

How are libraries approaching data sharing and data management infrastructure?

Summary:

The Year of Open Science is upon us, with the NIH Data Management and Sharing policy officially in effect from the beginning of the year and deadlines for public access provision fast approaching in light of the OSTP memo.

Reflecting on how different groups are handling these new policies, a recent article in Science Magazine noted that some universities are “beefing up staff who can help, such as IT specialists and librarians who specialize in data.” Some of these investments will be specifically to support the implementation of data capable repositories and the optimization of existing infrastructure.

However, technical investments, across most organizations, require a clear, beneficial end goal as well as internal buy-in. With the overall goal of helping researchers change behaviors and adopt Open Science practices, should libraries invest in data capable repository infrastructure and staffing? Or should they rely on the multitude of third party repositories to support data sharing needs?

Join us for this webinar where we’ll discuss the challenges libraries are facing in regards to data sharing, how institutions are approaching them, and, crucially, what the benefits of those approaches really are. We’ll also explore the challenge of garnering internal support and how library-led championing of proficient data sharing can work.


Speakers:

  • Image of Amy Gay

    Amy Gay

    Assistant Head of Digital InitiativesBinghamton University Libraries

    Amy Gay is the Assistant Head of Digital Initiatives at Binghamton University Libraries, where she oversees programming and services for the areas of digital scholarship and scholarly communications. Amy earned a MLIS from Syracuse University, focusing her research on cultural heritage preservation during wartime conflict, and a MAT in Education from SUNY Cortland, focusing her research on culturally relevant pedagogy. Her current research interests involve equity of open pedagogy, digital literacy education, and human-centered design. In her free time, Amy is co-host of The BatCat Podcast and hangs out with her furry four-legged housemates.

  • Image of Jonathan Petters

    Jonathan Petters

    Assistant Director of Data Management and Curation ServicesVirginia Tech

    As Assistant Director of Data Management and Curation Services, Jonathan Petters supervises a team that provides research data management planning, training, and curation support, and including geospatial data services, to researchers across Virginia Tech through the University Libraries. Previously Jon served in a data management role at Johns Hopkins University with the university’s Data Management Services group. Jon holds a PhD in Meteorology from Penn State and researched aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in shallow cloud systems. Jon was also an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, where he investigated data management policies and needs within the physical sciences.

  • Image of Mark Hahnel

    Mark Hahnel

    Founder and CEO Figshare

    Mark Hahnel is the Founder and CEO of Figshare, which currently provides research data infrastructure for institutions, publishers and funders globally. Mark is passionate about open science and the potential it has to revolutionize the research community. For the last eight years, Mark has been leading the development of research data infrastructure, with the core aim of reusable and interoperable academic data. Mark sits on the board of DataCite and the advisory board for Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). He is also on the judging panel for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Wellcome Trust Open Science prize and acts as an advisor for the Springer Nature master classes.

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