EDINA / Data Library Overview

EDINA & Data Library service overview

Stuart Macdonald
Associate Data Librarian
EDINA & Data Library
University of Edinburgh

Stuart.Macdonald@ed.ac.uk

EDINA & Data Library (EDL)

• EDINA and University Data Library (EDL) together are a
division within Information Services of the University of
Edinburgh.

• EDINA is a JISC-funded National Data Centre providing
national online resources for education and research.

• The Data Library assists Edinburgh University users in
the discovery, access, use and management of
research datasets.

EDINA National Data Centre
• Mission statement: “..to enhance the productivity of research,
learning and teaching in UK higher and further education..”

• Networked access to a range of online resources for UK
FE and HE

• Services free at the point of use for use by staff and
students in learning, teaching and research through
institutional subscription

• Focus is on service but also undertake R&D (projects 
services)
• delivers about 20 online services
• has about 10 major projects (including services in
development)
• employs about 80 staff (Edinburgh & St Helens)

What is a Data Library?

A data library refers to both
the
content and the services that
foster use of collections of
numeric, audio-visual, textual
or geospatial data sets for
secondary use in research.

Focus on re-use of data

International Association for Social Science
Information Services and Technology –
IASSIST

An international organisation of
professionals working with IT and
data services to support research and
teaching in the social sciences. Its
320 members work in a variety of
settings, including data archives,
statistical agencies, research
centers,
libraries, academic departments,
government departments, and non-
profit organisations.

Data Library services and projects

• Data Library &
consultancy

• Edinburgh DataShare

• JISC-funded projects
– DISC-UK DataShare
(2007-2009)
– Data Audit Framework
Implementation (2008)
– Research Data MANTRA
(2010-2011)

– AddressingHistory
– STEEV

Data Library & Consultancy

• finding…
• accessing …
• using …
• teaching …
• managing

Building relationships with researchers via postgraduate
teaching activities, research support projects, IS Skills
workshops, Research Data Management training and
through traditional reference interviews.

Edinburgh DataShare was built as an output of
the JISC-funded DISC-UK DataShare project (2007-2009)

Edinburgh DataShare
An online institutional repository of multi-disciplinary
research datasets produced at the University of
Edinburgh, hosted by the Data Library

Researchers producing research data associated with a
publication, or which has potential use for other
researchers, can upload their dataset for sharing and
safekeeping. A persistent identifier and suggested citation
will be provided.

DataShare is a customised DSpace
instance with a selection
of standards-compliant metadata
fields useful for discovery of
datasets, through Google and
other search engines via OAI-PMH.

A decision making and
planning tool for
institutions with digital
repositories in existence or
in development that are
considering adding research
data to their digital collections

Downloadable as PDF

Edinburgh Data Audit Framework (DAF) Implementation
May – Dec 2008)
A JISC-funded pilot project
produced 6 case studies from
research units across the University
in identifying research data assets
and assessing their management,
using DAF methodology developed
by the Digital Curation Centre.
4 main outcomes:
• Develop online RDM guidance
• Develop university research
data management policy
• Develop services & support
for RDM (in partnership IS)
• Develop RDM training

Research Data
Management Web
Guidance

Online suite of web pages
for IS website developed in
2009 (will be revamped
Summer 2012)

Downloadable PDF
handbook

University Research Data Management Policy
In spring 2010, a review commenced at the
University of Edinburgh to address the issue of
managing the rapidly expanding volume and
complexity of data produced by researchers.
The Review was overseen by the IT & Library
Committee and had twin tracks to look at
Research Data Storage, and Data Management,
Curation and Preservation.
The Review looked at current practice in the
University and assessed current practice in peer
universities and internationally
Review Committee responsible for drafting policy
to support the University’s mission for ‘the
creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge’

Championed by Vice-Principal
& Chief Information Officer
Professor Jeff Haywood the
policy for management of
research data was approved
by the University Court on 16
May, 2011.

Along with University of
Oxford, the first RDM policies
in the UK
“The University adopts the following
policy on Research Data Management.
It is acknowledged that this is an
aspirational policy, and that
implementation will take some years.”

* Quote from University of Edinburgh website
14

Policy Principles - examples

Responsibility for research data management through a sound
research
data management plan during any research project or
programme lies
primarily with Principal Investigators (PIs) – policy principle 2

All new research proposals must include research data
management
plans or protocols that explicitly address data capture,
management,
integrity, confidentiality, retention, sharing and publication -
policy
principle 3

The University will provide training, support, advice and where
appropriate guidelines and templates for the research data
management
and research data management plans - policy principle 4

Research data management plans must ensure that research
data are
available for access and re-use where appropriate and under
appropriate

Next Steps
IS Research Data Management Policy
Implementation Group established led by
Vice-principal Knowledge Management

IS RDMS Sub-group working on service
implementation plans

• Data management support
• Data management planning
• Active data infrastructure
• Data stewardship

Establishment of IS RDMS Steering group

RDM Awareness Raising sessions with IS staff
Focus groups with leading academics

Research Data
MANTRA
Partnership between:
Edinburgh University
Data Library
Institute for Academic
Development

Funded by JISC
Managing Research Data
programme (Sept. 2010 –
Aug. 2011)

Why manage Data Deluge – exponential growth in
the volume of digital research artifacts
research data? created within academia

Data management is one of the
essential areas of responsible
conduct of research.

By managing your data you will:

• Meet funding body grant
requirements.
• Ensure research integrity and
replication.
• Ensure research data and records
are accurate, complete, authentic
and reliable.
• Increase your research efficiency.
• Enhance data security and minimise
the risk of data loss.
• Prevent duplication of effort by
enabling others to use your data.

Project overview
Grounded in three disciplinary
contexts: social science, clinical
psychology and geoscience

Aim was to develop online
interactive open learning
resources for PhD students and
early career researchers that will:

• Raise awareness of the key issues
related to research data
management & contribute to
culture change

• Provide guidelines for good
practice

Online learning module
Eight units with activities, scenarios and
videos:
• Research data explained
• Data management plans
• Organising data
• File formats and transformation
• Documentation and metadata
• Storage and security
• Data protection, rights and access
• Preservation, sharing and licensing
Four data handling practicals:
SPSS, NVivo, R, ArcGIS
Video stories from researchers in variety
of settings
Xerte Online Toolkits – University of
Nottingham

Online learning module
• Delivered online – self-paced, available ‘anytime, anyplace’
• Emphasis on practical experience and active engagement via
online activities
• One hour per unit
• Read and work through scenarios & activities (incl. videos etc)
• CC licence to allow manipulation of content for re-use with
attribution
• Portable content in open standard formats (e.g. SCORM)

MANTRA dissemination

Image courtesy of the periodic table printmaking project –
http://azuregrackle.com/periodictable/table/58.html

• Deposit learning materials with an open licence in JorumOpen and Xpert
• Learning materials to be embedded in three participating postgraduate
programmes and made available through IAD programme for use by all
postgraduate students and early career researchers: This academic
year

• Public Website launch: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/MANTRA

• Download/re-brand/re-purpose materials from JorumOpen in standards
compliants formats (forthcoming)

• Software modules – data handling practicals (MS Word)

Links
IASSIST: http://www.iassistdata.org/

Data Library services: http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library

EDINA: http://edina.ac.uk/

Research data management guidance pages:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-data-management

Edinburgh University data policy:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-data-policy

Policy-making for Research Data in Repositories - A Guide:
http://www.disc-uk.org/docs/guide.pdf

Edinburgh Data Audit Framework (DAF) Implementation:
http://ie-repository.jisc.ac.uk/283/

Research data MANTRA course: http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra

THANK YOU!
stuart.macdonald@ed.ac.uk

Acknowledgements

image on Flickr - Green bird by Rakka - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rakka/28994058/
Image on Flickr – green butterfly abstract with a heart! By David Gunter - CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/dg_pics/2458460009/
Image on Flickr - abstract vector background by Vectorportal – CC BY 2.0 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/vectorportal/4929541221/
IASSIST Images courtesy of IASSIST website
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Image on Flickr by Philippe Put – CC BY-ND - http://www.flickr.com/photos/34547181@N00/4203882645/sizes/z/in/photostream//
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