Scholarly Work - Library
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/320
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Item Radical Collaboration: Making the Computational Turn in Special Collections and Archives(2019-11) Shanks, Justin D.; Mannheimer, Sara; Clark, Jason A.As more archival collections are digitized or born-digital, the work of archivists increasingly overlaps with the work of librarians who are responsible for research data and digital scholarship. This editorial uses Nancy McGovern's idea of radical collaboration as a framework, presenting a case study from Montana State University Library in which we collaborated across the domains of research data management, digital scholarship, archives, and special collections to integrate computational approaches into research, teaching, and service aspects of digital archival collections.Item Service Blueprinting: A Method for Assessing Library Technologies within an Interconnected Service Ecosystem(Taylor & Francis, 2019-06) Young, Scott W. H.; Mannheimer, Sara; Rossmann, Doralyn; Swedman, David; Shanks, Justin D.Service blueprinting is a method for designing, assessing, and improving services. This article provides a practical overview of the service blueprinting process for library technology services. We begin by outlining the recent conversation around library technologies, service design, and service blueprinting. We then detail an iterative case study for the creation process of a service blueprint, followed by a discussion of the service insights and improvements that resulted from this activity. We conclude by offering a set of recommendations for creating and analyzing service blueprints. Ultimately, the service blueprint is a useful tool for understanding the operation of a service, and for situating that service within a broader and interconnected library ecosystem.Item Assessing and Improving Library Technology with Service Blueprinting(2018-07) Young, Scott W. H.; Mannheimer, Sara; Rossmann, Doralyn; Swedman, David; Shanks, Justin D.Objective: The objective of this article is to illustrate the application of service blueprinting—a design tool that comes from the service design tradition—for assessing and improving library technology services. Setting: A mid-sized library at a public university in the western United States. Methods: A service blueprint was co-created by library and IT staff in a design workshop in order to map the operational flow of a data visualization display wall. Results: Guided by the service blueprint, the project team identified points of improvement for the service of the data visualization display wall, and developed recommendations to aid further applications of service blueprinting. Conclusions: Ultimately, service blueprinting was found to be a useful tool that can be applied to assess and improve library technology services.Item Discovery and Reuse of Open Datasets: An Exploratory Study(Journal of eScience Librarianship, 2016-07) Mannheimer, Sara; Sterman, Leila B.; Borda, SusanObjective: This article analyzes twenty cited or downloaded datasets and the repositories that house them, in order to produce insights that can be used by academic libraries to encourage discovery and reuse of research data in institutional repositories. Methods: Using Thomson Reuters’ Data Citation Index and repository download statistics, we identified twenty cited/downloaded datasets. We documented the characteristics of the cited/downloaded datasets and their corresponding repositories in a self-designed rubric. The rubric includes six major categories: basic information; funding agency and journal information; linking and sharing; factors to encourage reuse; repository characteristics; and data description. Results: Our small-scale study suggests that cited/downloaded datasets generally comply with basic recommendations for facilitating reuse: data are documented well; formatted for use with a variety of software; and shared in established, open access repositories. Three significant factors also appear to contribute to dataset discovery: publishing in discipline-specific repositories; indexing in more than one location on the web; and using persistent identifiers. The cited/downloaded datasets in our analysis came from a few specific disciplines, and tended to be funded by agencies with data publication mandates. Conclusions: The results of this exploratory research provide insights that can inform academic librarians as they work to encourage discovery and reuse of institutional datasets. Our analysis also suggests areas in which academic librarians can target open data advocacy in their communities in order to begin to build open data success stories that will fuel future advocacy efforts.Item Qualitative Data Sharing: Data Repositories and Academic Libraries as Key Partners in Addressing Challenges(2018-06-28) Mannheimer, Sara; Pienta, Amy; Kirilova, Dessislava; Elman, Colin; Wutich, AmberData sharing is increasingly perceived to be beneficial to knowledge production, and is therefore increasingly required by federal funding agencies, private funders, and journals. As qualitative researchers are faced with new expectations to share their data, data repositories and academic libraries are working to address the specific challenges of qualitative research data. This article describes how data repositories and academic libraries can partner with researchers to support three challenges associated with qualitative data sharing: (1) obtaining informed consent from participants for data sharing and scholarly reuse, (2) ensuring that qualitative data are legally and ethically shared, and (3) sharing data that cannot be deidentified. This article also describes three continuing challenges of qualitative data sharing that data repositories and academic libraries cannot specifically address—research using qualitative big data, copyright concerns, and risk of decontextualization. While data repositories and academic libraries cannot provide easy solutions to these three continuing challenges, they can partner with researchers and connect them with other relevant specialists to examine these challenges. Ultimately, this article suggests that data repositories and academic libraries can help researchers address some of the challenges associated with ethical and lawful qualitative data sharing.Item Building strategic alliances to support advocacy and planning for digital preservation(2017-12) Baucom, Erin; Troup, Tammy; Cote, Conor; Mannheimer, SaraWhile the business benefits of digital asset management are well documented, the benefits and importance of digital preservation are not. Digital preservation is a sustained commitment to maintenance activities which require a system of plans, policies, and implementation workflows. Coordination across departments is helpful for digital asset management, but it is mandatory for digital preservation. The Montana Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG) operated under a five-point plan for collaboration between organizations. The plan consisted of cultivating shared knowledge, assessing the current digital preservation landscape at each institution, advocating for the value of digital preservation, implementing digital preservation practices, and sustaining the partnership by developing structures for ongoing projects and mutual support. In this article, the five-point plan for collaboration used by DPWG is adapted to build alliances in four key areas of an organization: the Project and Process Team, the Management Team, the Executive Team, and the Information Technology Team. By building strategic alliances that support digital preservation advocacy and planning, information managers extend their reach and resources, ultimately leading to more robust preservation of valuable digital assets.Item Cultivate, Assess, Advocate, Implement, and Sustain: A Five-Point Plan for Successful Digital Preservation Collaborations(Emerald, 2017) Mannheimer, Sara; Cote, ConorPurpose: For libraries with limited resources, digital preservation can seem like a daunting responsibility. Forming partnerships can help build collective knowledge and maximize combined resources to achieve digital preservation goals. Design/methodology/approach: In 2015, librarians from four institutions in Montana formed the Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG), a collaboration to increase digital preservation efforts statewide. The group’s immediate goals were to promote digital preservation best practices at each individual institution, as well as to learn about and support each other’s work. The group’s long-term goal was to implement a shared digital preservation service that would fill gaps in existing digital preservation efforts. Findings: Beyond the cost savings gained by sharing a digital preservation service, the members of DPWG benefitted from shared knowledge and expertise gained during the partnership. The group also functioned as a sounding board as each institution built its digital preservation program, and it became a system of support when challenges arose. Practical implications: This article proposes a five-point plan for creating digital preservation partnerships: (1) Cultivate a foundation of knowledge and identify a shared vision; (2) Assess the current digital preservation landscape at each institution; (3) Advocate for the value of digital preservation activities; (4) Implement shared digital preservation services; (5) Sustain group activities and establish structures for ongoing support. Value: The activities of DPWG provide a model for institutions seeking to collaborate to meet digital preservation challenges. This article demonstrates that by implementing a structured plan, institutions can build and sustain digital preservation partnerships, thus positioning themselves to achieve digital preservation success.Item Personal Digital Archiving as a Bridge to Research Data Management: Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Teaching Research Data Management Skills for Undergraduates(ALA Editions/Neal-Schuman, 2018) Mannheimer, Sara; Banta, RyerData literacy is quickly gaining importance for undergraduate students who are preparing to enter the workforce. This chapter brings together three key concepts to address undergraduate data literacy: research data, research data management, and personal digital archiving (PDA). Research data is the material that is collected, observed, or created, for purposes of analysis to produce original research results. Research data management is the practice of organizing, preserving, and providing access to research data. PDA the practice of organizing, maintaining, using, and sharing personal digital information in daily life. Working directly with research data can be an ideal way for students to develop their data literacy. However, most undergraduates do not collect or manage research data regularly. In this chapter, we draw upon the principles of constructivist learning theory to suggest that PDA can be used as an instructional bridge to teach research data management to undergraduates. PDA closely parallels research data management, with the added benefit of being directly relevant to undergraduate students, most of whom manage complex personal digital content on a daily basis. By teaching PDA, librarians encourage authentic learning experiences that immediately resonate with students' day-to-day activities. Teaching PDA builds a foundation of knowledge that not only helps students manage their personal digital materials, but can be translated into research data management skills that will enhance students' academic and professional careers.Item Sharing selves: Developing an ethical framework for curating social media data(International Journal of Digital Curation, 2017-01) Mannheimer, Sara; Hull, Elizabeth A.Open sharing of social media data raises new ethical questions that researchers, repositories, and data curators must confront, with little existing guidance available. In this paper, the authors draw upon their experiences in their multiple roles as data curators, academic librarians, and researchers to propose the STEP framework for curating and sharing social media data. The framework is intended to be used by data curators facilitating open publication of social media data. Two case studies from the Dryad Digital Repository serve to demonstrate implementation of the STEP framework. The STEP framework can serve as one important "step" along the path to achieving safe, ethical, and reproducible social media research practice.Item Montana State University Research Data Census Instrument, Version 2(Montana State University ScholarWorks, 2016-04) Clark, Jason A.; Llovet, Pol; Mannheimer, Sara; Sheehan, JerryMontana State University developed the Research Data Census (RDC) to engage our local research community in an interactive dialogue about their data. The research team was particularly interested in learning more about the following issues at Montana State: the size of research data; data storage needs; data sharing and publication behaviors; and interest in existing services that assist with the curation. Version 1 of the RDC (http://doi.org/10.15788/m2h59m) was distributed in January 2015. Version 2 was distributed in spring 2016.