Designing Curriculum to Educate Digital Library Professionals in iSchools

1. Designing Curriculum to Educate Digital Library Professionals in iSchools Elizabeth D. Liddy Dean, iSchool @ Syracuse University Syracuse, New York

2. Recent Job Ads – 1a • Research Data Specialist • Responsibilities • Key role in e-science, digital data curation & supporting cyber-scholarship for all STEM disciplines • Staying abreast of scientific data trends, data documentation tools & standards for data exchange, re-use & interoperability • Utilizing information technology tools for metadata manipulation & script execution • Consultation, assessment & support services to facilitate all aspects of digital data curation.

3. Recent Job Ads – 1b • Research Data Specialist • Qualifications • MLS or Masters degree in science • 1 year research lab experience • Strong communication, inter-personal & communication skills • Aptitude for & consistency in detailed work • Ability to analyze & solve problems creatively & flexibly in a complex & rapidly changing environment • Strong service orientation & interest in users’ values & needs

4. Recent Job Ads – 2a • Science Data Services Librarian • Responsibilities • Work with primary research community & other librarians to develop & sustain services for accessing & analyzing research data with focus on bio-informatics & chemo-informatics. • Act as liaison between campus & library initiatives and the research community to promote, facilitate, and support the development of services for collecting & archiving research data. • Maintain awareness of tools & methodologies for computationally centered, data-driven science.

5. Recent Job Ads – 2b • Science Data Services Librarian • Qualifications • MLIS from ALA-accredited program • Excellent communication skills • Superior organizational & analytical skills • Life sciences subject background • Experience with computer & telecommunications technologies for information management

6. Where do the Applicants come from? • As emphasis moves from physical to digital data, we should be seeing major changes in curriculum of library & information science schools • While major professional responsibilities remain same • How they are done & what they are done on changes • Digital librarians must possess: • Subject-matter expertise & familiarity with data types, data sources, data sets, manipulation techniques & analytical tools to support digital library ‘s users • High levels of technical sophistication in Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support users’ needs • How do we in iSchools adapt / extend our curriculum?

7. Proposed Solution • Professional Informational Technology Facilitators are needed to work with researchers to: • Identify & utilize most effective analytical tools, data sets & other resources to best achieve research objectives • Support all data-intensive activities of the researchers • Introduce library-based organization & access skills • Our response has been to explore the creation of a specialized academic program for graduating new information professionals – • Cyber-Infrastructure Facilitators • CI Facilitators

8. Cyber-Infrastructure Facilitator • Cybernetics: Interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes & control mechanisms • Infrastructure：Basic services necessary for development to take place – for example, roads, electricity, water, education & health facilities • Cyber-Infrastructure：Integration of computer hardware, data, software, networks, Web, wireless grid, archives, tools, etc • Facilitator: One who enables or makes easier

9. CI Facilitators • Cyber – Infrastructure Facilitators • Individuals who work within a research organization to enable it to accomplish its mission • Based on their combined expertise in: • Data access, manipulation, archiving & sharing • Information & communication technologies • A specific disciplinary content area • Ability to guide & assist others in information-related tasks • 2-year project for NSF’s Office of Cyber-Infrastructure to develop a model curriculum for a new professional • For Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics labs

10. Why do we need these new roles? • Scientific researchers spend their careers mastering the skills, knowledge, and tools that comprise the core of their disciplines. • Most scientists do not have the time or interest in simultaneously becoming experts in information management, networking, distributed collaboration, search, retrieval, archiving & all other skills of the information professions. • Advances in Cyber-Infrastructure have fueled a vast proliferation of scientific information – more findings, more datasets, new networks, huge repositories, etc. • Even the most motivated of scientists struggle to keep up with rapid pace of knowledge creation in their field.

11. NSF-Funded Project • To study requirements for producing these professionals for active research labs • Focus on the three i’s • Information • Infrastructure • Innovation • Goal is to provide students with skills to: • Discover the needs of STEM researchers • Adapt available technology to satisfy those needs • Acquire, manage, manipulate, archive & share data

12. Project Goals • Develop a demonstration project of education, training & internships, that will provide core principles for advancing the goals of Cyber-Infrastructure throughout the STEM disciplines. • Focus on developing meta-cognitive skills to master new information infrastructure as it emerges. • Guide students in learning how to become vital members of a research team. • Share curriculum as a model for other iSchools.

13. Means for Accomplishing These Goals • Conduct a needs analysis in existing STEM laboratories. • Design a curriculum based on new, modified, and existing courses, + lab internships. • Assessnew curriculum on a cohort of masters students in the iSchool at Syracuse University.

14. 1. Needs Analysis in STEM Laboratories* • University Research Labs • Biology, engineering, astronomy, physics, computer science, archaeology, experimental psychology • 110 targeted research faculty responded to web survey • 31% response rate • Attitudes, practices & experience with research data • Inquired as to data management practices • Data production • Access to data • Utilization / manipulation • Archiving • Sharing *D’Ignazio & Qin (2008)

15. Findings from Needs Analysis * • Researchers (on average across disciplines) • 81% considered themselves frequent data producers • 72% found metadata helpful for locating external data • 71% entered metadata on their own data • 66% aware of external data important to their research • 62% brought in external data for use • Specific data management activities: - Producing - Calculating - Accessing - Merging - Tagging - Visualizing - Cleaning - Archiving - Converting - Sharing *D’Ignazio & Qin (2008)

16. Further Findings from Needs Analysis * • Terminology had to be negotiated based on pilot testing of survey • Science researchers’ definitions & usage of terms differed from library scientists • Expressed concern that current practices for managing data in their field were limiting advances in knowledge • Many STEM faculty researchers currently use graduate research assistants as day-to-day handlers of data • But are eager to hire full-time, trained, professional staff for data management • Saw the benefit & need for professional CI-Facilitators • Immediately offered paid internships for current cohort students *D’Ignazio & Qin (2008)

17. 2. Design CI-Facilitator Curriculum • Currently in midst of developing curriculum • Based on our survey results & • Literature review of 3 studies of needs of eScience / eResearch / Cyber-Infrastructure • US – NSF report, Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery • United Kingdom – recent consultancy report by UKOLN • Australia & Asia – eResearch Australasia 2007 questionnaire asked, ‘What skills are necessary in your lab to support the rapid uptake of eResearch?’* • Identified 140 separate skills / capabilities *Henley, 2008

18. CI-Facilitator Curriculum • Technical skills – related to high-performance computing & the access grid; database management; data curation; information engineering; information modeling; software development; distributed processing; remote communications; portal design; database integration; visualization; programming. • Informatics skills – storage, retrieval, sharing and use of scientific data & processes. • Communication skills – understanding end-to-end lab workflows, ability to think like, work, & communicate with researchers to develop / support data repository.

19. Status of CI-Facilitator Curriculum • Will be a 24 credit hour graduate specialization within the Masters of Library & Information Science degree • 5 MLIS students admitted last fall as 1st cohort • New Science Data Literacy Course • Covers fundamentals of scientific data, data management, and use of a range of scientific data manipulation tools • All topics include case studies • Offered this spring semester • Taught by doctoral student with intensive training & experience in the scientific method • Doing summer-long internships in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics research facility

20. Existing Digital Library Courses in Curriculum • IST 676: Digital LibrariesOverview of digital library projects and issues including representation of information in digital libraries; mechanisms for retrieval; digital intermediation, and the sociopolitical environment for digital libraries. • IST 677: Creating, Managing & Preserving Digital AssetsIssues & trends involved in transferring analog collections into digital collections, including project management, digitization, delivery systems, digital assets management, metadata, digital rights & digital permanence. • IST 759: Planning and Designing Digital Library ServicesDevelopment, design & planning of digital library services. Intensive hands-on Internet information services development & management.

21. 3. Evaluate New Curriculum • Have established 11 program outcomes focused on various stakeholders • Students, faculty, internship sponsors, employers • Both formative & summative assessment data • Provides for iterative, continuous evaluation • Vital because it is so new a program • Metrics / rubrics will cover • STEM Subject Matter • CI Subject Matter • Tool / infrastructure competency • Research expertise • Meta-cognitive skills • Creativity / improvisation • User Focus

22. Summary • Just getting started, but some results to-date • All cohort members were offered paying summer jobs in research labs • Preliminary, cursory review of evaluations of new course are both positive and informative • Long-term impacts will lie in contributions made by graduates of CI-Facilitator program • Increasing productivity & success of research labs • CI-Facilitator offers a new professional career path for MLIS students with a science / technology bent

23. Opportunities http://it.nees.org/ • Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation • The NEES includes15 laboratories, collaborative tools, one centralized data repository, and a series of earthquake simulation software • connected through high performance computing network • provide collaboration means for advanced simulation research and experiments • simulations include the real performance of buildings, bridges, public facilities, and coastal areas during earthquakes Cyberinfrastructure -- U of Carlos III Madrid 2008

24. Opportunities http://www.nbirn.net/

25. http://www.nanohub.org/ Cyberinfrastructure -- U of Carlos III Madrid 2008

26. Cyberinfrastructure -- U of Carlos III Madrid 2008

27. LIS Professionals as Facilitators Conclusion – CI Facilitator’s Role Researchers as Disciplinary Experts Problem 1: Researchers do not have the capacity to simultaneously become experts in information management. Problem 2: It is difficult for them to keep up with the rapid pace of knowledge creation in their field. Problem 3: It is difficult for them to keep up with the rapid pace of development of information infrastructure Information professionals are experts in information management, networking, virtual or distributed collaboration, search and retrieval, archiving, user interface development, etc. Information professionals are dedicated experts in describing, representing, organizing, and provide access to knowledge and. Information professionals are dedicated experts in building and developing information infrastructure (hardware, software, network, communication)