1. Do You Know Where Your Data Are?
Suzi Cole, Scholarly Resources & Services, Sciences Librarian
Definitions:
Data curation: ongoing management of data through its life cycle of interest & usefulness to scholarship, including value-added activities & features that make digital content meaningful
Data management: the process of controlling the information generated during a research project 
Data archiving: data protection; provides identifiers for sharing, references, etc. (could satisfy NSF requirements)
Data preservation: Ensuring that data can be fully used and interpreted (satisfies NSF needs)
PROBLEM: Vulnerability of your data
SOLUTION: SRS Librarian assistance
How?
Plan at start of project
Consult about common terminology
Consult about organization of data
Develop planned redundancy
Decide length of retention
Plan for continuity through research assistants
Colby Science Faculty Survey, 2010
How aware are you of the issue of archiving personal data within your research field?
Very aware of this issue
I’ve heard this issue mentioned, but didn’t think it impacted me
I’ve never thought about this issue before
Why should you care?
Compare:
Time spent in data collection vs.
Time spent to backup data vs.
Time required to reconstruct lost data
Lack of continuity when research assistants leave
Post-publication queries about your data are easier
Where are your data?
Where
# Responses
External hard drive/my computer/disks 21
Lab notebooks/file cabinet/printed versions 12
Another university/colleagues 6
Journal publisher 5
Backup drive/Colby fileserver 3
Discipline-related data repository 2
In basement/at home
Results reported in publication
Instrument database 1
Your SRS Liaison Librarian
Can Help
Contribute to data curation process
Help establish common terminology
Find solutions for data preservation
Information entropy
Michener et al. (1997)
Colby Science Faculty Survey, 2010
Sources:
Data curation. Council on Library and Information Resources
Michener, WK, JW Brunt, JJ Helly, TB Kirchner, SG Stafford Nongeospatial Metadata for the Ecological Sciences. Ecological
Applications 7(1):
What is data management? Penn State University Libraries
What is data management? University of Minnesota Libraries