But I Don't Have Access to Your Server, and My Grad Student Left Last Month!

Meeting the Challenges of Research Data Curation via Metadata

Juliane SchneiderResearch Curation Data Program, UC San Diego

Please take my dataset!

• Collaboration• Recognition• Funding requirements• Professional Legacy

“Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.”--Michel de Montaigne

Tenopir C, Dalton ED, Allard S, Frame M, Pjesivac I, Birch B, et al. (2015) Changes in Data Sharing and Data Reuse Practices and Perceptions among Scientists Worldwide. PLoS ONE 10(8): e0134826. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.013482

Metadata

Before you

Know your scope!

SearchDiscoverySharingCurationPreservationPublishing Services

SearchDiscoverySharingSelf-Deposit

PreservationDark Storage

Know your resources!

• IT support– A separate library IT department– Dedicated IT staff from main IT department– Person in a cube

• Database– SQL? Triplestore? Proprietary system?

• System– Proprietary or open source?– Homegrown?– What are the pieces? (back end vs. UI vs. indexing)

UC San Diego

• Big IT department in the library• Triplestore• Homegrown system with a SOLR index, Blacklight

and Hydra

Moving to Fedora 4!

Updated our data model to move into line with DPLA and other Fedora/Hydra CommunitiesLooked for namespaces in places like Bibframe

Grounding ourselves in the Portland Common Data Model

Our Data Model

• Brought more in line with DPLA and other Hydra/Fedora institutions

• Continue to conform to the Portland Common Data Model (PCDM)

• Breaking out subjects into Scientific Name, Common Name and Anatomy– Considering FAST headings

• Not final! Still working on it….

Form 1

• Working project title• Reason for inquiry• Purpose and value• Scope• Copyright status/data ownership• Sensitive data? FERPA? HIPAA?• Scheduling a consult

Form 2

• Collection title• Personnel names, identifiers and roles• Dates created/collected• Full collection description• Brief collection description• Identifiers• Keywords• Related resources• Licensing• Embargos

Metadata Consultation

• Players: Metadata Specialist, Project Manager, Data Provider

• Actions:• Confirm Collection Level metadata

– Names of people, roles– Rights– Related resources– Publications– Preferred citation

• Discuss item level metadata

Metadata Questions

• Storage– What is the total size of the collection?– How many files?– What is the current file structure, and where does it live?

• Data– What are the formats of the files?– What is the basic structure of the data?– Is the dataset complete or ongoing?

• Metadata– What kind of metadata does the data have?– Does the metadata live with the data files, or is it in a separate place?– What format is the metadata in?– If there is existing metadata, is there a unique ID or some other way

of connecting an object to its corresponding metadata

Code/Executable metadata

• Base environment (language or software) and version required to run the code, besides the OS

• Base language or software packages/libraries/modules needed, along with version numbers

• Ideally, a system requirements document (machine-generated) that describes the environment needed to run the code

• URL for base software home page

Standards

• PREMIS• METS• MODS• MADS• VRA• Bibframe• Schema.org

Crosswalks

• Excel spreadsheet template

• MARC (from our ILS)• Archivist’s Toolkit

Biggest Challenges

• Acquiring the data/metadata– Setting up a shared space can be difficult because of

permissions.

NEVER METADATA UNPREPAREDKnow What You Want To Do

Know What You've Got To Do It With

DOCUMENT YOUR METADATA

Links and such

www.library.ucsd.edu/dc

http://libraries.ucsd.edu/services/data-curation

Juliane SchneiderEmail: j6schneider@ucsd.eduTwitter: JulianeSLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/juliane-schneider/5/653/4a0