Elizabeth D. LiddyDean, iSchool @ Syracuse

UniversitySyracuse, New York

Designing Curriculum to Educate Digital Library

Professionals in iSchools

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Research Data SpecialistResponsibilities

Key role in e-science, digital data curation & supporting cyber-scholarship for all STEM disciplines

Staying abreast of scientific data trends, data documentation tools & standards for data exchange, re-use & interoperability

Utilizing information technology tools for metadata manipulation & script execution

Consultation, assessment & support services to facilitate all aspects of digital data curation.

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Research Data SpecialistQualifications

MLS or Masters degree in science1 year research lab experienceStrong communication, inter-personal &

communication skills Aptitude for & consistency in detailed workAbility to analyze & solve problems creatively &

flexibly in a complex & rapidly changing environmentStrong service orientation & interest in users’ values

& needs

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Science Data Services LibrarianResponsibilities

Work with primary research community & other librarians to develop & sustain services for accessing & analyzing research data with focus on bio-informatics & chemo-informatics.

Act as liaison between campus & library initiatives and the research community to promote, facilitate, and support the development of services for collecting & archiving research data.

Maintain awareness of tools & methodologies for computationally centered, data-driven science.

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Science Data Services LibrarianQualifications

MLIS from ALA-accredited programExcellent communication skillsSuperior organizational & analytical skillsLife sciences subject backgroundExperience with computer & telecommunications

technologies for information management

Where do the Applicants come from?

As emphasis moves from physical to digital data, we should be seeing major changes in curriculum of library & information science schools

While major professional responsibilities remain sameHow they are done & what they are done on changes

Digital librarians must possess:Subject-matter expertise & familiarity with data types, data

sources, data sets, manipulation techniques & analytical tools to support digital library ‘s users

High levels of technical sophistication in Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support users’ needs

How do we in iSchools adapt / extend our curriculum?

Proposed Solution

Professional Informational Technology Facilitators are needed to work with researchers to:Identify & utilize most effective analytical tools, data

sets & other resources to best achieve research objectives

Support all data-intensive activities of the researchersIntroduce library-based organization & access skills

Our response has been to explore the creation of a specialized academic program for graduating new information professionals –

Cyber-Infrastructure FacilitatorsCI Facilitators

Cyber-Infrastructure Facilitator

Cybernetics: Interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes & control mechanisms

Infrastructure ： Basic services necessary for development to take place – for example, roads, electricity, water, education & health facilities

Cyber-Infrastructure ： Integration of computer hardware, data, software, networks, Web, wireless grid, archives, tools, etc

Facilitator: One who enables or makes easier

CI Facilitators

• Cyber – Infrastructure Facilitators– Individuals who work within a research organization to enable

it to accomplish its mission – Based on their combined expertise in:

• Data access, manipulation, archiving & sharing• Information & communication technologies• A specific disciplinary content area• Ability to guide & assist others in information-related tasks

• 2-year project for NSF’s Office of Cyber-Infrastructure to develop a model curriculum for a new professional– For Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics labs

Why do we need these new roles?

1. Scientific researchers spend their careers mastering the skills, knowledge, and tools that comprise the core of their disciplines.

2. Most scientists do not have the time or interest in simultaneously becoming experts in information management, networking, distributed collaboration, search, retrieval, archiving & all other skills of the information professions.

3. Advances in Cyber-Infrastructure have fueled a vast proliferation of scientific information – more findings, more datasets, new networks, huge repositories, etc.

4. Even the most motivated of scientists struggle to keep up with rapid pace of knowledge creation in their field.

NSF-Funded Project

To study requirements for producing these professionals for active research labs

Focus on the three i’sInformationInfrastructureInnovation

Goal is to provide students with skills to:Discover the needs of STEM researchers Adapt available technology to satisfy those needsAcquire, manage, manipulate, archive & share data

Project Goals

Develop a demonstration project of education, training & internships, that will provide core principles for advancing the goals of Cyber-Infrastructure throughout the STEM disciplines.

Focus on developing meta-cognitive skills to master new information infrastructure as it emerges.

Guide students in learning how to become vital members of a research team.

Share curriculum as a model for other iSchools.

Means for Accomplishing These Goals

1. Conduct a needs analysis in existing STEM laboratories.

2. Design a curriculum based on new, modified, and existing courses, + lab internships.

3. Assess new curriculum on a cohort of masters students in the iSchool at Syracuse University.

1. Needs Analysis in STEM Laboratories*

University Research LabsBiology, engineering, astronomy, physics, computer science,

archaeology, experimental psychology110 targeted research faculty responded to web survey

31% response rateAttitudes, practices & experience with research data

Inquired as to data management practicesData productionAccess to dataUtilization / manipulationArchivingSharing

*D’Ignazio & Qin (2008)

Findings from Needs Analysis *Researchers (on average across disciplines)

81% considered themselves frequent data producers72% found metadata helpful for locating external data71% entered metadata on their own data66% aware of external data important to their research62% brought in external data for use

Specific data management activities:- Producing - Calculating- Accessing - Merging- Tagging - Visualizing- Cleaning - Archiving- Converting - Sharing

*D’Ignazio & Qin (2008)

Further Findings from Needs Analysis *Terminology had to be negotiated based on pilot

testing of surveyScience researchers’ definitions & usage of terms differed

from library scientists

Expressed concern that current practices for managing data in their field were limiting advances in knowledge

Many STEM faculty researchers currently use graduate research assistants as day-to-day handlers of dataBut are eager to hire full-time, trained, professional staff

for data managementSaw the benefit & need for professional CI-Facilitators

Immediately offered paid internships for current cohort students

*D’Ignazio & Qin (2008)

2. Design CI-Facilitator Curriculum

Currently in midst of developing curriculumBased on our survey results &Literature review of 3 studies of needs of eScience /

eResearch / Cyber-Infrastructure US – NSF report, Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st

Century Discovery United Kingdom – recent consultancy report by

UKOLNAustralia & Asia – eResearch Australasia 2007

questionnaire asked, ‘What skills are necessary in your lab to support the rapid uptake of eResearch?’*Identified 140 separate skills / capabilities

*Henley, 2008

CI-Facilitator Curriculum

Technical skills – related to high-performance computing & the access grid; database management; data curation; information engineering; information modeling; software development; distributed processing; remote communications; portal design; database integration; visualization; programming.

Informatics skills – storage, retrieval, sharing and use of scientific data & processes.

Communication skills – understanding end-to-end lab workflows, ability to think like, work, & communicate with researchers to develop / support data repository.

Status of CI-Facilitator Curriculum

Will be a 24 credit hour graduate specialization within the Masters of Library & Information Science degree

5 MLIS students admitted last fall as 1st cohort

New Science Data Literacy Course Covers fundamentals of scientific data, data management, and use of

a range of scientific data manipulation tools All topics include case studies Offered this spring semester Taught by doctoral student with intensive training & experience in the

scientific method

Doing summer-long internships in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics research facility

Existing Digital Library Courses in CurriculumIST 676: Digital Libraries

Overview of digital library projects and issues including representation of information in digital libraries; mechanisms for retrieval; digital intermediation, and the sociopolitical environment for digital libraries.

IST 677: Creating, Managing & Preserving Digital AssetsIssues & trends involved in transferring analog collections into digital collections, including project management, digitization, delivery systems, digital assets management, metadata, digital rights & digital permanence.

IST 759: Planning and Designing Digital Library ServicesDevelopment, design & planning of digital library services. Intensive hands-on Internet information services development & management.

3. Evaluate New Curriculum

Have established 11 program outcomes focused on various stakeholdersStudents, faculty, internship sponsors, employers

Both formative & summative assessment dataProvides for iterative, continuous evaluationVital because it is so new a program

Metrics / rubrics will coverSTEM Subject MatterCI Subject MatterTool / infrastructure competencyResearch expertiseMeta-cognitive skillsCreativity / improvisationUser Focus

Summary

Just getting started, but some results to-dateAll cohort members were offered paying summer jobs in

research labsPreliminary, cursory review of evaluations of new

course are both positive and informativeLong-term impacts will lie in contributions made by

graduates of CI-Facilitator programIncreasing productivity & success of research labs

CI-Facilitator offers a new professional career path for MLIS students with a science / technology bent

Cyberinfrastructure -- U of Carlos III Madrid 200823

http://it.nees.org/ Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation

• The NEES includes15 laboratories, collaborative tools, one centralized data repository, and a series of earthquake simulation software• connected through high performance computing network• provide collaboration means for advanced simulation research and experiments• simulations include the real performance of buildings, bridges, public facilities, and coastal areas during earthquakes

Opportunities

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http://www.nbirn.net/

Opportunities

04/20/23Cyberinfrastructure -- U of Carlos III Madrid 200825

http://www.nanohub.org/

04/20/23Cyberinfrastructure -- U of Carlos III Madrid 200826

Conclusion – CI Facilitator’s Role

Researchers as Disciplinary Experts

Problem 1: Researchers do not have the capacity to simultaneously become experts in information management.

Problem 2: It is difficult for them to keep up with the rapid pace of knowledge creation in their field.

Problem 3: It is difficult for them to keep up with the rapid pace of development of information infrastructure

LIS Professionals as Facilitators

Information professionals are experts in information management, networking, virtual or distributed collaboration, search and retrieval, archiving, user interface development, etc.

Information professionals are dedicated experts in describing, representing, organizing, and provide access to knowledge and.

Information professionals are dedicated experts in building and developing information infrastructure (hardware, software, network, communication)

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