Meyer Library represented at 2024 Midwest Data Librarian Symposium
Professor Joshua Lambert of the Duane G. Meyer Library recently attended the 2024 Midwest Data Librarian Symposium (MDLS) in Lawrence, KS. The 2024 MDLS Conference presentations included innovative research related to data repository use and better ways to engage minorities so that they will contribute to institutional repositories. The participants practiced using Application Programming Interfaces, which could better inform their institution about researcher publishing practices. Other sessions helped librarians think of complex concepts using metaphors so that they can better communicate those complex ideas to users in their library. Still another session presented best practices related to student data visualization contests and how to facilitate them.
MSU faculty are thinking a lot more about data management. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), someone who applies to a grant from the NIH must include a data management plan in that grant proposal. Due to this NIH policy and other organizations with similar policies, data librarianship is becoming even more important.
A data librarian helps people find and manage data. Finding data sets is different from finding books and articles and typically requires looking in different databases and other online locations. If a researcher creates data as part of their research, they must decide how to manage that data.
The MSU library has managed image and document data for years in the Special Collections and University Archives as well as in Bearworks. RCASH (Reynolds College of the Arts, Social Studies, and Humanities) and the MSU Library recently opened the Digital Humanities Lab and projects there will require data management of various types over time. As the campus needs change, attendance at conferences like this will better prepare library employees to meet those needs.