Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices: a Social Network Analysis of Three Academic Departments at Colorado State UniversityED PEYRONNIN

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices• We seem at times, to be living in what

Umberto Eco has called an “epoch of forgetting”.”(Kuny, 1997)

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation PracticesProblem• We have shifted to a new modality – Digital

• The new modality is transforming our stored knowledge

• How do we ensure the preservation of this knowledge?

• Cases of data lost due to (relatively short-term) obsolescence and neglect exist

• Data storage and data preservation are two very different concepts.

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Personal, professional and organizational data management responsibilities and behavior have not been clearly defined, articulated or communicated

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Remedy - Higher education institutions should develop communication strategies to:

• Create dialogue among all stakeholders

• Refine and articulate existing standards

• Consolidate repetitious standards

• Eliminate conflicting standards

• Create new standards

• Promote knowledge of digital practices and adoption of standards

Research questions

R1 – How do researchers communicate and learn about digital data management practices at a major research university?

R1a – How do specific events such as workshops, training, or data-loss impact digital data management practices?

R1b – How does local resource access impact digital data management practices?

R1c – How do external stimuli, such as the requirement for data management plans, impact digital data management practices?

R2 – How can communication improve digital data management practices?

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Method - Social Network Analysis• A relational approach• Causal pressures are inherent in social structure• Network analysis is a set of methods for

detecting and measuring the magnitude of the pressures

• …how an individual lives depends in large part on how that individual is tied into the larger web of social connections.

INSNA (International Network for Social Network Analysis), by Lin Freeman

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

• SNA largely studies dyadic attributes such as• Social Roles: boss of, teacher of, friend of

• Cognitive: knows, views as similar

• Actions: talks to, has lunch with, attacks

• Co-occurrence: is in the same club as, has the same color hair as

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Area of interest

• Three departments at CSU with different academic and research perspective

• Atmospheric Research – Large number of scientific research grants

• CIS – Instruct the rules of technology

• Anthropology – Large academic area

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Atmospheric Research CIS Anthropology

Faculty Count 16 11 12

Faculty Count

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Fall 2007

Spring 2008

Fall 2008

Spring 2009

Fall 2009

Spring 2010

Fall 2010

Spring 2011

Fall 2011

Spring 2012

Fall 2012

Atmospheric Research Graduate 94 81 86 86 83 81 88 84 93 81 8716 Undergraduate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Total 94 81 86 86 83 81 88 84 93 81 87

CIS GraduateUndergraduate 64 70 74 84 100 183 163 157 148 163 173Total 64 70 74 84 100 183 163 157 148 163 173

Anthropology Graduate 55 48 48 46 56 52 56 49 54 48 44Undergraduate 169 159 188 171 175 188 216 240 262 285 290Total 224 207 236 217 231 240 272 289 316 333 334

Student Count

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Atmospheric Science $20,761,742 $19,412,967 $55,614,884 $27,452,615 $30,736,804

Computer Information Systems $155,329 $170,595 $0 $43,135 $143,633

Anthropology $708,201 $1,132,304 $1,985,053 $598,064 $579,949

Research Grant Dollars

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation PracticesCLIR interview questions

(Spencer, L. J. a. A. A. (2012). The Problem of Data: Data Management and Curation Practices Among University Researchers. Retrieved from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub154.)

• Demographics

• Background

• Data creation/analysis

• Collaboration

• Preservation

• Personal practices and training

• Extra-departmental activities

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices

Data Collection and Reporting• Collect Institutional data

• Interview two faculty from each department using amended CLIR questionnaire

• Develop and distribute survey to the three departments

• Create and analyze matrices

• Conduct in depth interviews with one faculty member from each department

• Write report

Paths for Adoption of Digital Preservation Practices• Thank you!

• Questions, Comments, Recommendations