Introduction to theUniversity Data Libraryand national data services

Stuart MacdonaldAssociate Data Librarian

Graduate School of Social & Political Science InductionSeptember, 2016

Outline About the Data Library Data Library services & resources National data services for social sciences

UKDSEDINAADRN

Non-academic data sources & tools Skills and training

EDINA and Data Library within Information Services

Divisions User Services Library and University Collections IT Infrastructure Applications EDINA and Data Library Digital Curation Centre Learning, Teaching and Web Services

What is a data library?

A data library refers to both the content and the services that foster use of collections of numeric and/or geospatial data sets for secondary use in research. A data library is normally part of a larger institution (academic, scientific, medical, governmental, etc.) established to serve the data users of that organisation. The data library tends to house local data collections and provides access through various means (CD-/DVD-ROMs or central server for download). A data library may also maintain subscriptions to licensed data resources.

Data Library: History Established out of the Program Library Unit in

early 1980s to provide access to data on mainframes, e.g. 1981 population census data. Was part of EUCS, now Information Services

Part of long tradition of sharing machine-readable data for secondary analysis in the social sciences

Became a national data centre as EDINA in 1996 - data library continues University remit celebrated 30th anniversary in 2013

Data Library - http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library

Data Library & Consultancy Finding…“I need to analyse some data for a project, but all I can find are

published papers with tables and graphs, not the original data source.”

Accessing …“I’ve found the data I need, but I’m not sure how to gain access to

it.” Using …“I’ve got the data I need, but I’m not sure how to analyse it in my

chosen software.” Managing …“I have collected my own data and I’d like to document and preserve

it and make it available to others.”

Reference Interviews Training and resources: http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/data-library/training-resources

Data Library Resources Large-scale social science survey data Country and regional level time series data Population and Agricultural Census data Data for mapping Resources for teaching

Opening hours: 9.30am – 5.30pm (Mon. – Fri.)Argyle House3 Lady Lawson StreetEH3 9DR

Tel.: 0131 651 1431 or 0131 651 1744Email: datalib@ed.ac.uk

Data Library Catalogue arranged by Topic - http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/catalogue

Research Data Management Services Research data management training:

Research Data MANTRA - Open online course for researchers managing digital data as part of the research process

Research Data Management & Sharing MOOC - https://www.coursera.org/learn/data-management

Institutional data repository provision Edinburgh DataShare

Assistance with deposit in national archives Assistance with Data Management Plans (DMPs)

Research Data MANTRA

• Organising data• Documentation & metadata• Storage & security• File formats & transformations• Data management planning

• PLUS software-specific data handling practicals

• Open online, self-paced course for researchers• http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra

Edinburgh DataShare - http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/

Research Data Service http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-management

Why research data management is important

Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) - http://aqmen.ac.uk/

AQMeN is a Research Centre that aims to develop projects to improve our understanding of current social issues in the UK and provide policy makers and practitioners with independent research-based evidence to build a better future.

Funded by ESRC (2013-2016) AQMeN has three primary strands of research involving a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the UK and abroad :

• Crime and victimisation• Education and social stratification• Urban segregation and inequality

Original aim was to build capacity in the use of quantitative methods amongst Scotland’s social science community and beyond.

AQMeN offer practical quantitative methods training on a range of techniques developed as part of their programme of research

Data Library host and manage the AQMeN website

Questions?

Introduction to National Data Services

UK Data ArchiveFounded in 1967 and based at the University of EssexESRC / JISC-fundedWork closely with CESSDA, ICPSR, NatCen social research, NCRM, ONSHouses several thousand social science and humanities datasets Provides resource discovery and support for secondary use of quantitative and qualitative data in learning, teaching and research. More recently it has worked with environmental and medical data sources. Host to the UK Data Service which provides the following facilities:

• History Data Service• Census.ac.uk• Variable and question bank• Secure Lab• Qualibank

UK Data Service (UKDS)£17 million investment over 5 years

UKDS - a comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data.

A single point of access to high quality census data, government-funded surveys, longitudinal studies, international macro-data, qualitative data and business micro-data.

Distributed service led by Univ. of Essex in collaboration with: Jisc Manchester, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census & Survey Research (Univ. of Manchester) School of Geography (Univ. of Leeds)Geography and Environment (Univ. of Southampton)EDINA (Univ. of Edinburgh)Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL)

Commenced 1 October 2012 – integrated ESDS, Census Programme, Secure Data Service, and other elements of the data service infrastructure provided by ESRC, including UKDA

UKDS - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

UKDS features include:Access – free for academic use, registration requiredData – full/partial catalogue search, browse by subject, theme, and geography, also links to major studies, new releasesSupport – finding data, online guides, learning and teaching resources, online data analysis tools (NESSTAR), external statistical sources, FAQResources – Online data browsing tools, metadata tools, software guides, qualitative toolsAdvice for using, managing, depositing, sharing research data - best practice for ESRC researchers and beyond, preservation guidelinesNews & Events – workshops, new data, publications (incl. good practice guides)

Key Data

• Part of "EDINA and Data Library" division of Information Services at the University of Edinburgh

• Develops and delivers shared online services and infrastructure to support research and education in the UK

• Services free at the point of use for use by staff and students in learning, teaching and research through institutional subscription

• Focus is on service delivery and support but also undertake R&D (projects services)

delivers about 10 online services employs about 50 staff (Edinburgh & St Helens)

EDINA – a Jisc centre for digital expertise and online service delivery – http://edina.ac.uk

EDINA Digimap - http://digimap.edina.ac.uk/

Administrative Data Research Network (ADRN) - http://www.adrn.ac.uk/

Government data sources National Records of Scotland (NRS) –

http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/ Scottish Census 2011 – Data Explorer – http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ Office for National Statistics (ONS) –

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html ONS Neighbourhood Statistics –

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/ Statistics.Gov.Scot (replacing Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics) - http://statistics.gov.scot/

NISRA - http://www.nisra.gov.uk/ Welsh Government Statistics -

http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/?lang=en Data.Gov.UK - http://data.gov.uk/ Eurostat – http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

DataShine The DataShine mapping platform is part of the ESRC Big

Open Data: Mining and Synthesis (BODMAS) project. Developed and maintained by UCL’s Centre for Advanced

Spatial Analysis The overall project seeks promote and develop the use of

large and open datasets amongst the social science community.

Promote visualisation of these data in new and informative ways to inspire new uses and generate insights.

Phase one has been to create the mapping platform with data from the 2011 Census.

The next phases developing tools that will enable the synthesis of data across multiple sources.

Indiemapper (online GIS)

Information Services: Digital Skills and Training - http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/is-skills/classroom-courses

Classroom courses include:

ArcGIS Quantum GISSPSS NVivoUnix

Skills and Training

An online skills provider offering a library of high quality video courses including:

Digital citizenship; Developing with Python; Pixel playground

Plus many more catering for all levels from beginner to expert.

From the soft launch in June 2016, all staff and students will be entitled to access Lynda.com. Lynda.com - http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-consultancy/is-skills/lynda

MOOCS There are many free Massive Open Online Courses out there on a range of data-related subjects

Coursera are one of the MOOC platforms and offer a range of courses hosted by a number of leading research-intensive universities:

The Data Scientist’s Toolbox, Data Structures and Algorithms, Statistics with R, Python Data Structures, Data Visualisation, R Programming, Getting and Cleaning Data, Exploratory Data Analysis –

See: https://www.coursera.org/browse/data-science/data-analysis?languages=en

The Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)

(based in University of Edinburgh, JCMB) offer a number of training opportunities including Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry workshops – see: http://www.software.ac.uk/what-do-we-do/training

New skills:● (Big Data) Data analysts (R, Python, SPSS, SAS, PHP)● Data carpentry (software skills & tools for effectively working with data)● Data journalists (journalism specialty reflecting the role of numerical data in the production and distribution of information in the digital era)● Data wranglers (munging, mining, handling, manipulating)● Data technicians, Data scientists

A Data Future

Pics from Flickr (creative commons attribution) – creditsinclude: D Sharon Pruitt

Ask us about data

stuart.macdonald@ed.ac.ukdatalib@ed.ac.uk