Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on the need for improved management of research data. Academic libraries have begun to articulate the conceptual foundations, roles, and responsibilities involved in data management planning and implementation. This paper provides an overview of the Engineering data support pilot at the University of Michigan Library as part of developing new data services and infrastructure. Through this pilot project, a team of librarians had an opportunity to identify areas where the library can play a role in assisting researchers with data management, and has put forth proposals for immediate steps that the library can take in this regard. The paper summarizes key findings from a faculty survey and discusses lessons learned from an analysis of data management plans from accepted NSF proposals. A key feature of this Engineering pilot project was to ensure that these study results will provide a foundation for librarians to educate and assist researchers with managing their data throughout the research lifecycle.
is the research data services manager at the University of Michigan Library. In this role, he explores the application of the theories, principles, and practices of library science beyond the domain of traditional library work. In particular, Carlson seeks to increase the Library's capabilities and opportunities to provide services supporting data-related research. Much of his work is done through direct collaborations and partnerships with research faculty. Carlson is one of the architects of the Data Curation Profiles Toolkit (http://datacurationprofiles.org) developed by Purdue University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the principal investigator of the Data Information Literacy project (http://datainfolit.org), a collaboration between Purdue University, Cornell University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Oregon. Analysis of the DMPs shows that the overall quality of DMPs at UM varies greatly. Some common weaknesses in the DMPs are: lack of roles and responsibilities; lack of metadata standards that will be used; and failure to mention intellectual property rights. Analysis of the DMPs also revealed gaps in the librarians' knowledge of DMP requirements. In addition to discussing the findings from this current set of analyses, overall DMP quality from this study is compared to DMP quality found in a similar analysis of engineering DMPs from 2013. Looking toward a future where the outcome of grant proposals may be more dependent on the quality of the DMP, this analysis gives the engineering librarians at UM a foundation for creating a DMP service in the coming year, and can inform other librarians who wish to develop a similar service at their institution.
is an Engineering librarian and the Coordinator for Engineering Collection at the Art, Architecture and Engineering Library (AAEL) at the University of Michigan. She is also the liaison Librarian for Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Entrepreneurship. Leena has been a librarian at University of Michigan since 1995 in various ranks. Prior to joining University of Michigan, Leena has worked as Librarian at Gelman Sciences and American Tobacco Company. Leena has a M.L.S. degree from Catholic University of America and M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Mumbai.
is a CLIR/DLF Data Curation fellow, associate librarian, and a full-time researcher affiliated with the Clark Library for Maps, Government Information and Data Services. Since the summer of 2012, Natsuko has been involved in developing and implementing library data services. After joining the University of Michigan Library in 2009, the majority of her time and effort has been dedicated to textbook initiatives at the University of Michigan Library. Her research orientation and knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative methodological techniques has enabled her to conduct several textbook-related studies that examine and assess a wide range of potential roles the Library can play in increasing textbook affordability for the Michigan scholarly community. Natsuko most recently served as a project manager for the campus-wide eTextbook Initiative led by the University Library.
As a means of aiding students who struggle with the high cost of textbooks, some libraries now leverage their ebook subscription packages to provide eTextbooks for courses. At the University of Michigan, the engineering librarians routinely offer ebook versions of engineering textbooks whenever possible. Although this institution has been following this principle for the past ten years, it has done so with little direct knowledge of students' preferences regarding their options for print versus ebook format for their textbooks. Some studies have shown that students expressed a preference for using their textbooks in print format. To assess the usefulness of the service of providing eTextbooks, in the Fall 2019 semester the engineering librarians at the University of Michigan developed and sent a survey to engineering graduate and undergraduate students whose textbooks were available as eTextbooks. The survey sought to learn about students' use of the ebooks and their opinions about eTextbooks. As a follow up to the survey, the librarians met with two focus groups who provided more qualitative information on student use of eTextbooks. Survey and focus group results may inform not only changes to the service of providing eTextbooks, but also can be shared with publishers to potentially inform improvements to ebook platforms. This paper reports on the results of the survey and focus group and implications for the future.
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