Developing Library Services for Digital

Humanities & E-Science Support Using Qualitative

Research

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Clarke Iakovakis & Rafia MirzaSeptember 2014

UTA Library

E-Science

Institute

Interviews:

A brief summary of the findings

What

was

the E

-Sci

ence

Inst

itute

?

A set of self-assessment exercises, interviews, SWOT analysis, and development of strategic agenda

designed to help academic and research libraries develop a strategic agenda for e-research support

Partnered with OIT & Research Administration

Who d

id w

e

inte

rvie

w?

19 people:2 AdministrationVP of OIT & VP of

Research Administration

6 DeansLibrary, SUPA, Liberal

Arts, Science, COBA,

Nursing11 FacultySociology, Social Work,

SUPA, Physics, Music,

Chemistry, Political Science, English, Linguistics

Image via Peter Petrus

What

did

we

ask

?

Supporting & facilitating research

The ways faculty use computation & information technologies to conduct their research

Technological challenges to research

Evaluation of digital projects for T&P

Role of library in supporting digital projects

Perspectives on data sharing, data archiving, data management plans, open access, institutional repository

Librarians are perceived to

be information specialists on an interdisciplinary level

Image by Musgo Dumio Momio Fi

ndin

gs:

Str

ength

s

I think of you as the people who are the navigators. You know where the information is, you curate and manage the information, you can help people find what they need, you can show them how to use it in the most effective ways. …. The library is the heart and soul of the university”

Image by jani

The library has built relationships with faculty from their experience in providing access to information, reference, and instruction

Image via freefoto

The lib

rary

has

valu

e

as

physi

cal pla

ce

Image by Patrik Goethe

“I think the physical library will always have a place”

“When I studied during my physics master’s, I had to walk through the library to my office, so I came across the bench where the most recent journals were displayed, meaning I always stopped there. This is a very tactile experience: to have the journal in the hand and to browse through it.”

Image by Ioan Sameli

Findin

gs:

W

eakn

ess

esThe university

has not put enough money and resources

into computing

“We have a very inadequate research environment right now…”

Faster Bandwidth/transfer speeds

For the scale of the data that we have, bandwidth is a huge problem

Som

e

rese

arc

hers

have

expre

ssed a

need f

or

more

IT

support

Storage Support The Department of

Biology doesn’t have its own server that’s capable of doing genome analysis, which is a third of this department.

Software Support for me, the data analysis

needs have not been quite what I had hoped……. I think we need to be looking into more software for faculty across the university.

Som

e

rese

arc

hers

have

expre

ssed a

need f

or

more

IT

support

Image by NWABR

Findin

gs:

O

pport

unit

ies

Student research needs must be

supported

“I think there is a research methodology that can be best taught that is common to all disciplines, not exactly the same in all disciplines, but I think it’s a skill like mathematics is a skill, like language is a skill like reading and writing are skills I think that there is a skill to researching information and I think that’s a skill that perhaps library or librarians can take on as a mission.”

Researchers need centralized access to secondary datasets that can be collected and organized from open data sources

Image by Tom Woodward

Digital Humanities projects are widespread and require technological support, from storage to software, to training

Image by Phillip Baron

Digital Humanities is not the kind of research that can be done by one person. And that’s why it’s so powerful, but that’s also why it needs to be supported institutionally”

Image b

y A

ndre

w B

eC

raft

Faculty need assistance understanding fundamental

aspects of scholarly communication, including

publishing, open access, copyright, and Creative

Commons

Image by

Kristina Alex

anders

Mandates for deposit, both from journals and research funders, are one factor driving concerns about data archiving

Journals requiring data deposit

Federal agencies requiring data deposit

Concerns about losing data & having someone responsible for backing up & preserving

Data sharing is one way to get more citations & exposure

Sharing data is important for furthering research

The research output, independent of an article, is slowly beginning to be recognized as valid unto itself

“I mean, if it’s good scholarship, it kind of doesn’t matter what mode it’s in, right?”

Image v

ia A

J C

ann

Findin

gs:

O

pport

unit

ies

Faculty need support for writing data management plans & access issues surrounding data

Facu

lty w

ant th

eir sch

ola

rship

to b

e se

en a

nd u

sed

Image via Communication librarian

Findin

gs:

O

pport

unit

ies

Faculty support open access to publications for a number of reasons

Open access benefits students

Open access is inevitable

Findings: Threats

Factors restricting data sharing/deposit in data repository:

• Ensuring credit will be given• Fear of getting scooped• When to share: Ensuring you get all your

research out of data before sharing It• Concerns surrounding data

misuse/dealing with sensitive data

Findings: Threats

Factors restricting making the publication open access:

• Journals don’t allow it• Information access is not an issue so OA

doesn’t solve a pressing problem for them• Peer review concerns• Journal publication is a matter of prestige• Economic concerns/publisher’s rights

concerns

Reorie

nt

Image by Paul Hen

ning

Image by Peter Rens

haw

Image via naturalturn