Transcript EDINA National Data Centre & Edinburgh University Data Library

The strange case of the local data
librarian a peculiarly Edinburgh perspective!
Stuart Macdonald
([email protected])
EDINA National Data Centre - http://edina.ac.uk/
Edinburgh University Data Library - http://datalib.ed.ac.uk/
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
Overview
• Definition
• EDINA National Data Centre
• Edinburgh University Data Library
• Data Library Services
• ESDS Expertise
• DISC-UK
• International Perspective
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
A Data Library defined by:
A data library refers to both the content and
the services that foster use of collections of
numeric and/or geospatial data sets for
secondary use in research. A data library is
normally part of a larger institution (academic,
corporate, scientific, medical, governmental,
etc.) established to serve the data users of
that organisation.
The data library tends to house local data
collections and provides access to them
through various means (CD-ROMS/DVDs or
central server for download). A data library
may also maintain subscriptions to licensed
data resources for its users to access.
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
EDINA & University Data Library (EUDL)
• EDINA and University Data Library (EUDL) 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.
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
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 75 staff (Edinburgh & St Helens)
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
Edinburgh University Data Library
- first such service in the UK, started in 1983
• Primarily within social sciences
• Data Collection covering:
Large scale government surveys
Macro-economic time series
Financial time series
Population census data
Geospatial data
• Specialised in data for Scotland and GIS
• Teaching and (JISC-funded) projects
• Institutional representative for national data services
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
Data Library Services
Finding…
Match research topic to data resources such as surveys,
censuses, databases and provide information on other
libraries, archives, government agencies
Accessing …
Assist with registration and acquisition of data from national
data services such as ESDS. Demonstrate custom interfaces
to download data or provide files online / on disk.
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
Using …
Interpret codebooks and online documentation, help choose
variables to use in analysis, or customise users’ data in e.g. Excel,
SPSS . Assist with importing of spatial data into GIS for thematic
mapping. Merge and match users data with recognised
Sources such as NSPD, deprivation scores.
Managing …
Advise on storing, versioning, documenting, anonymising and formatting
researchers’ data so that it can be shared or preserved for future use in
an archive or repository (e.g. Edinburgh DataShare)
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
ESDS Expertise
ESDS User Guides
• Accessing IMF International Financial Statistics via Beyond 20/20 WDS
• Guide to British Household Panel Survey
Analysis and methods guides
• How to use statistical analysis guides
Online Data Services guides
• Exploring data online using the ESDS Nesstar Catalogue
Preservation & sharing guidelines
• RELU data management plan
• New UKDA manage and share data section
• Good practice in data documentation
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
DISC-UK (Data Information Specialists Committee – UK)
- http://www.disc-uk.org/
“a forum for data professionals working in UK Higher Education who
specialise in supporting their institution's staff and students in the
use of numeric and geo-spatial data”
•
•
•
•
Edinburgh University Data Library
Oxford Data Library (Nuffield College)
LSE Data Library & Research Laboratory Data Service
Southampton University Library
JISC-funded DISC-UK DataShare project
Investigate the legal, cultural and technical issues surrounding
research data sharing within UK tertiary education community
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
International Perspective
• IASSIST – International Association for Social Science information
Service and Technology - http://www.iassistdata.org/
• CESSDA - Council of European Social Science Data Archive http://www.cessda.org/ - gateway to European social science data
• ICPSR – Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research - http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/
• IFDO - International Federation of Data Organizations http://www.ifdo.org/
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society
THANK YOU!
Washed out Images:
Daniel Kohn’s Photostream from Flickr
13 February 2009
ESDS – what’s in it for librarians?
Royal Statistical Society