I recently returned from the IASSIST Conference in Vancouver, BC. Luckily I was there when the Canucks were still winning and the sun was shining, and got back to NYC well before the riots.
IASSIST is the International Association for *Social Science* Information Services & Technology, and although the org has been around for many years, it’s recently been attracting more and more folks interested in e-science and data from disciplines that don’t fit nicely into the “social science” label (not to mention many professionals who are being asked to deal with ALL types of data). It’s an exciting time to be a part of IASSIST as interest in all things data continues to grow and we continue to contemplate our mission and scope. Another thing I like about IASSIST (the org and the conference) is that there are data librarians, but also plenty of others--archivists, programmers, LIS and other researchers, IT professionals, government employees, etc. Of course I love librarians, but it’s nice to hear what others are thinking about occasionally too. The group is still small enough for good networking and getting to know each other.
The narrative we’ve all been hearing for awhile now is still going strong: we need to get our researchers to contribute/share/preserve data...some of them are really into it, many are not (for various reasons)...we need to use a carrot and/or a stick to get more of them on board. Even in the relatively short time I’ve been involved with these communities, I see progress related to all parts of the story, this year particularly re: the NSF data management plan requirements (stick) and creating standards for consistent data citations (carrot).
I also really enjoyed the session on library workshops about data and am looking forward to seeing more (and hopefully to contributing more) sessions about the public services aspects of data librarianship in the future.
The closing plenary session was fantastic. Andrea Reimer is a member of the Vancouver City Council, which seemed an odd choice for a closing plenary speaker, but her session on Vancouver’s open government initiatives was an inspiring end to the conference. She was probably preaching to the choir a bit talking to the IASSIST crowd, but it was refreshing to hear these things from a politician. I was hoping I’d be able to post the video, but it isn’t available yet and would’ve been pretty long to watch anyway. A few key points:
- Citizens can’t be meaningfully involved in government decisions if they aren’t making decisions based on the same information that the politicians have. Plus, citizens/developers can usually make data much more useful faster and more efficiently than can a bureaucracy.
- A lot of info was already out there, but not in logical/usable formats and not well easily findable. It can’t be called “open access” if info is released in formats that are unusable. Releasing data buried in pdf documents is probably better than nothing, but under this initiative, Vancouver is making it standard for agencies to release their data in tabular format that can actually be digested, manipulated, and found. [aside: releasing born-digital material on paper is unacceptable. State of Alaska, take note.]
- Finally, end discrimination against open source software. Let government employees choose the tools they need to do their jobs.
-Samantha
IASSIST is the International Association for *Social Science* Information Services & Technology, and although the org has been around for many years, it’s recently been attracting more and more folks interested in e-science and data from disciplines that don’t fit nicely into the “social science” label (not to mention many professionals who are being asked to deal with ALL types of data). It’s an exciting time to be a part of IASSIST as interest in all things data continues to grow and we continue to contemplate our mission and scope. Another thing I like about IASSIST (the org and the conference) is that there are data librarians, but also plenty of others--archivists, programmers, LIS and other researchers, IT professionals, government employees, etc. Of course I love librarians, but it’s nice to hear what others are thinking about occasionally too. The group is still small enough for good networking and getting to know each other.
The narrative we’ve all been hearing for awhile now is still going strong: we need to get our researchers to contribute/share/preserve data...some of them are really into it, many are not (for various reasons)...we need to use a carrot and/or a stick to get more of them on board. Even in the relatively short time I’ve been involved with these communities, I see progress related to all parts of the story, this year particularly re: the NSF data management plan requirements (stick) and creating standards for consistent data citations (carrot).
I also really enjoyed the session on library workshops about data and am looking forward to seeing more (and hopefully to contributing more) sessions about the public services aspects of data librarianship in the future.
The closing plenary session was fantastic. Andrea Reimer is a member of the Vancouver City Council, which seemed an odd choice for a closing plenary speaker, but her session on Vancouver’s open government initiatives was an inspiring end to the conference. She was probably preaching to the choir a bit talking to the IASSIST crowd, but it was refreshing to hear these things from a politician. I was hoping I’d be able to post the video, but it isn’t available yet and would’ve been pretty long to watch anyway. A few key points:
- Citizens can’t be meaningfully involved in government decisions if they aren’t making decisions based on the same information that the politicians have. Plus, citizens/developers can usually make data much more useful faster and more efficiently than can a bureaucracy.
- A lot of info was already out there, but not in logical/usable formats and not well easily findable. It can’t be called “open access” if info is released in formats that are unusable. Releasing data buried in pdf documents is probably better than nothing, but under this initiative, Vancouver is making it standard for agencies to release their data in tabular format that can actually be digested, manipulated, and found. [aside: releasing born-digital material on paper is unacceptable. State of Alaska, take note.]
- Finally, end discrimination against open source software. Let government employees choose the tools they need to do their jobs.
-Samantha
