Data Curation: Tips and Tools for Today

Abstract

In the past year we have seen how quickly and easily scientific data can be removed from government websites and rendered inaccessible to the public. Libraries have a responsibility to step into the breach and provide safe places for data to be stored. In the case of Academic Libraries it is even more important that they not only provide archival storage for data but that they also encourage their faculty to follow good data storage practices. All too often research data is improperly documented and archived, which can lead to headaches for other researchers looking to replicate experiments or sift the data for their own needs. This workshop will describe good data storage and documentation practices, look at some of the data curation models currently in use by libraries, examine common data types that need to be archived, and give attendees practice in working with these different data types. Attendees should leave the workshop prepared to either pilot a data curation project at their own library or evaluate the needs of an existing project.