I used these slides for my portion of the "Flying Solo" ANDS webinar: Did you know there are data librarians who work outside of (traditional) libraries? For some, being a data librarian means leaving the relative comfort of the library behind and ‘flying solo’ into unchartered territory. These are new and demanding roles that require a steep learning curve with minimal support. In this webinar, three data librarians working outside of libraries will share their experience of going it alone, reflecting on these challenging yet rewarding roles that push the boundaries of librarianship and open new opportunities for the profession. Siobhann McCafferty is based at QUT’s Institute for Future Environments in Brisbane and is the Research Data Coordinator for the National Agricultural Nitrous Oxide Research Program (NANORP). She is embedded in the Healthy Ecosystems and Environmental Management group at IFE and works with researchers from across Australia to store program data and make it discoverable and reusable. Jane Frazier is a Data Librarian at ANDS. She has previously worked in the University of North Carolina Music Library cataloging 20th century American vocal sheet music, as curatorial assistant at the Dryad digital repository, and at the UNC Metadata Research Center exploring automatic subject indexing processes for Dryad. From 2013 to 2014 Jane led the research and development of a new web-­based cataloging system for collectible items with Stanley Gibbons, one of the world’s oldest stamp collecting firms. -- Michelle Teis has more than 25 years’ industry experience, senior consultant Michelle Teis is an enterprise information management expert specialising in content, data and knowledge management, and information privacy. http://www.glentworth.com/about-us/our-key-people/michelle-teis/

1. Presented as part of the ANDS webinar Flying solo: data librarians working outside (traditional) libraries

2. Jane Frazier
Data Librarian @
jane.frazier@ands.org.au
@mignon1915

3. Data librarianship?
“[Using] the traditional skills and
strengths of the librarian to
enable researchers to manage,
share, publish and/or preserve
their outputs in a connected way”
@groenewegendave
“Professional library staff engaged
in managing research data, using
research data as a resource, or
supporting researchers in these
activities”
@andsdata
“The application of traditional librarianship
principles and practices to data resources…
involves one or more of the following; acquisition
(collection development), organization (cataloging
and metadata), and the implementation of
appropriate user services”
IASSIST iBlog

4. based on 61 Non-Traditional Jobs for LIS Grads from the iSchool @ U Syracuse

5. My job description(excerpts)
Provide specialist information, advice
and administrative support relating to
research data management
Work collaboratively with partners to
integrate research data management
activities
Provide advice and review services to research
communities and institutions to describe, connect, publish
and make accessible their datasets, in a way that is
coherent across sectors and disciplines
Coordinate, plan and organize visits
to ANDS stakeholders to maximize
engagement opportunities
Participate in and advise on the
development of project plans,
strategies, policies and procedures
Participate in ANDS internal
processes and activities

6. Music performance &
Musicology research
How I got to my current position...
● Undergrad and Masters degrees in Opera Performance
● ‘Soft skills’
○ Collaboration & communication
○ Self-motivation
○ Performance under pressure
○ Networking
○ Giving & receiving constructive criticism
● Humanities research & academic writing
○ La Didone and Seventeenth-Century Venetian Sexism
○ The Royal Academy of Music and the British Trading Conquest of the Early Eighteenth Century

7. Traditional cataloguing
Music performance &
Musicology research
How I got to my current position...
UNC-Chapel Hill Music Library
● Grad student assistantship
● Traditional MARC cataloguing
● Processing & binding of periodicals
● Curation of library exhibit Curating Sound: 75 Years of Music Collections at UNC

8. Digital curationDigital curation
Traditional cataloguing
Music performance &
Musicology research
How I got to my current position...
● Digital data repository environment (built on DSpace)
● Managed datasets underlying biosciences publications
● Data curation lifecycle
○ Metadata quality, DOI minting, data citation
○ Rights & licensing issues
○ Data repository software workflows
○ Communication with researchers & Dryad developers

9. How I got to my current position...
UNC Metadata Research Center
● Project: Redesign & rebuild MRC website
○ Organisation of web information, writing for the web, Wordpress/HTML/CSS
● Project: Evaluation of automatic subject indexing of Dryad datasets
○ Conceptual mapping between controlled vocabulary terms & subjects found in Dryad
metadata
● Project: Research on Dryad user-provided subject metadata
○ Recommendations for metadata best practices for Dryad scientists
<MRC>
Metadata research
Digital curation
Traditional cataloguing
Music performance &
Musicology research

10. Private sector
software dev
Metadata research
Digital curation
Traditional cataloguing
Music performance &
Musicology research
How I got to my current position...
● Private sector/startup/agile environment
● Building non-traditional cataloguing systems outside of libraries
○ Collectibles, not bibliographic records
● Software development, systems analysis, user testing
● Requirements gathering, documentation of legacy business rules, crosswalking
● Worked with developers & non-libraries colleagues
● Communication
○ Translating between technical & non-technical language

11. Data librarianship
Private sector
software dev
Metadata research
Digital curation
Traditional cataloguing
Music performance &
Musicology research
Data Librarian @ ANDS
● Metadata for Research Data Australia training for librarians
● ANDS Content Providers Guide restructure
● ANDS partner institution data & RDA metadata consultancy
● Vocabularies projects
○ Vocram: Development of a collaborative vocabulary creation & management system
○ ANDS Vocabulary Service
● CSIRO Summer of Vocabularies

12. My day-to-day role as data librarian
● Requirements gathering & analysis
● Systems & business analysis
● Crosswalking for interoperability
○ RIF-CS, Dublin Core, schema.org, ADMS, SKOS, Dryad metadata schema
● Metadata schema research & development
● UI design & mockup work
● Writing user support documentation
● Metadata creation best practice training & support
● LibGuides administration
● Communication with ANDS & external colleagues
my (current) toolkit

13. The main challenges in my work
● Translating ideas from a technical perspective to a non-technical one
(and vice versa)
● Keeping both the user & system perspectives in mind
● Quickly switching gears from one project to another
● Learning to work with external stakeholders
● Learning about the Australian research landscape

14. How I develop my skills...
● Use data as a vehicle to learn about new disciplines & technologies
● Ask questions
● Be extroverted at conferences
● Overcome fear of things ‘above my skill level’
● Google/Wikipedia/Stack Exchange/W3C/ISO are my friends
● I ❤ developers

15. Thinking of moving into a data librarianship role?
My two cents...
● Look past job titles
● Learn how to describe your skills in language that will be meaningful to the
people interviewing you
● Prepare to learn & adapt to emerging technologies
● Be proactive in developing your skills:

16. Databrarians
Resources for Data Librarianship: http://databrarians.org/resources-for-databrarians/
Data @ Libs
Data Librarianship educational resources: http://data.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/data-librarianship-educational-resources.html
ALIA Jobs
https://www.alia.org.au/jobs
I Need A Library Job (INALJ)
http://inalj.com/?p=1441
...all over Twitter; start with @INALJNaomi
http://jobs.code4lib.org/
@code4lib
Information Science job search sites: http://sils.unc.edu/careers/lis-job-links/information-science-jobs
UNC-SILS jobs list: http://sils.unc.edu/careers/sils-job-list

17. Thank you!
jane.frazier@ands.org.au
@mignon1915
*these slides are available at http://www.slideshare.net/mignon1915