Integrating Data Curation Concepts Throughout the Project Lifecycle: A WILIS Case Study

Document Type

Poster

Abstract

There continues to be concern among researchers and funders about the lack of archiving of research data. Such data can be a useful for secondary analysis and for readers of published research articles who may be interested in further information or replication studies. Most research data sets are not archived at all and, when data archiving is considered, it is often an afterthought, which makes successful data archiving difficult, if not impossible. This poster will discuss the curation of large scale survey data collected as part of the Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science (WILIS) program of research funded by the Institute of Museum of Library Services (IMLS). The WILIS projects were designed to study the educational, work, career and retention issues faced by LIS graduates. Phase 1 of WILIS consisted of an in-depth, retrospective study of graduations of LIS programs in North Carolina from 1964-2007. Phase 2 modified the recent graduates’ portion of the WILIS1 survey and tested this survey tool for shared alumni tracking in 39 LIS programs in North America. Phase 3 of WILIS is currently focusing on archiving the WILIS1 and WILIS2 data for future use by researchers and other stakeholders and creating a guide to data archiving that can be used by LIS and social science researchers. Lessons learned from the WILIS data archiving experience form a useful case study for developing best practices in data curation throughout a research project lifecycle.

APA Citation

Thompson, C.A., Marshall, J.G., Morgan, J.C., Rathun-Grubb, S., & Wells, A. (2013). Integrating data curation concepts throughout the project lifecycle: A WILIS case study. iConference 2013 Proceedings, 790-792. https://doi.org/10.9776/13389

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