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Data Initiatives Group - MIT Engineering and Science Libraries (ESL)

Explorations by library, information, and data professionals on the challenges of managing, sharing, and communicating scientific data

Data explorations: faculty interview questions and findings

General questions:

What kind of data do you collect in your research?

Where do you store your data?

Where do you store the data you share collectively among researchers?

How do you organize your datasets? (for example, via a database)

Do you apply any metadata to your data as part of organizing it?

How do you archive/preserve your data?

Are you interested in archiving/preserving your data?

Can you think of reasons why you might want to/not want to archive/preserve your data?

Have you considered using DSpace to archive/preserve your data?

Would you consider consulting a librarian for help organizing/archiving/preserving your data? (Librarians can help with: metadata, standards, intellectual property, archiving/preservation issues)

Supplementary questions:

Geosciences and civil engineering:

    * Please describe the data you generate.
    * Is there a specific software package/algorithm associated with your data generation?
    * Is there a GIS component to your modeling software?
    * If there is not a GIS component to your modeling software, do you use the MIT IS&T licensed GIS Software? (Arc GIS or PCI Geomatica). Do you use other GIS software? If so, what is it called, and why do you use it?
    * Do you collect data generated by other people?
    * Do you use data from a genome data bank or other biology related source?
    * Do you use data from the MIT geodata repository?
    * Where do you store data?
    * Would you like to attach your data to papers you publish?

Computer science:

Have you ever experienced a loss of data when a graduate student left and you could no longer access their data?

Is your profession actively looking for solutions to data storage/reuse issues?

Life sciences:

What is the biggest need for data in your institute?(i.e. microscopy data was 1 suggestion I received)

How can the libraries help with this? (storage, good accessibility to stored data, central repository for images on a gargantuan scale as images)

Do departments want to share data in repositories? Please comment

Some libraries around the US are beginning to hire bioinformatio specialists. Do you feel that is needed at MIT?

What is the real value of the library to you in these areas? (one example is Biobase, which you mentioned previously)

How can the libraries help with data instruction? (To date, we have collaborated with Cancer Center and Broad for instruction; we provide classroom and publicize; scientists teach, such as training for GenePattern, genome sequencing analysis software )

What are your informatics needs?

What products are you using (e.g. NCBI Entrez databases)?

What type of products should be available campus-wide?

Who does the training in your department?

What about training in graduate and undergraduate courses?

Does your research group maintain your own informatics database?

General findings:

Data is difficult to consistently store and organize.
Metadata is rarely assigned, and done in a haphazard way.
Some data is not shareable, due to privacy considerations.
Loss of control over data is an issue.
Time and effort are needed to manage data effectively.
There are many technical barriers to data storage and organization.
Researchers would like libraries to provide access to commercial databases.
Researchers need to get to earlier versions of data sets.
Researchers are curious about the flexibility of DSpace.
There is a perceived need for centralized storage of data.
Researchers need to evaluate what is worth archiving.
Researchers have faith in the longevity of current formats.