Introduction to Data Management
Ryan Clement, Wendy Shook, Patrick Wallace
Middlebury Library
Today's Goals
At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
- describe the research data lifecycle
- understand the importance of metadata
- use best practices for naming and organizing files
Why
Data
Management?
Because of this...
Image By Boneill - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21357129
And this...
Steen, R. G., Casadevall, A., & Fang, F. C. (2013). Why Has the Number of Scientific Retractions Increased? PLOS ONE, 8(7), e68397. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068397
What is Research Data?
Research Data:
“That which is collected, observed,or created in digital form, for purposes of analysing to produce original research results”
Dataset:
“A set of files containing both research data – usually numeric or encoded – and documentation sufficient to make the data re-usable”
The University of Edinburgh Information Services
Image from United States Geological Survey at http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclekids/download/watercycle-kids-poster.jpg
Fill lifecycle Share Discuss
Exercise1
What is metadata?
Photo/T-shirt from Sarah0s on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahseverson/6245395188
Think
Describe Discuss
Exercise 2
Let's talk about best practices...
File Naming
-
Objective
-
Meaningful
-
Concise
-
Standardised
Effective file naming is:
Make it Objective
-
subjective
-
yesterdaysmeetingnotes
-
-
objective
-
20160101_liaison_meeting_notes
-
Make it Meaningful
-
cryptic
-
rm217_ren_bgt
-
rm217_ren_bgt
-
readable
- renovation_budget_mbh217
Make it Concise
-
verbose
- gemininorth-mar2004-gmos-program28-observation35-image116
- gemininorth-mar2004-gmos-program28-observation35-image116
-
concise
- GN2004A-Q28-35-116
Make it Consistent
-
confused
- meeting_notes-jan26
- 20160120_notes
-
notes-2015dec17
-
consistent
- 20160101_liaison_meeting_notes
- 20160109_liaison_meeting_notes
- 20160122_liaison_meeting_notes
Why use ISO
Date Formatting?
Why use ISO
Date Formatting?
If we sort by month, dates are out of order.
Why use ISO
Date Formatting?
If we sort by day, dates are out of order.
Why use ISO
Date Formatting?
If we sort by year, dates are in order!
Why use
Leading Zeros?
Same reasoning as date ordering...
Folder Organization
Thoughtful
Consistent
Documented
| TOP LEVEL | 2nd LEVEL | FILE-LEVEL CONVENTION |
|---|---|---|
| DLA | ||
| Library Work | ||
| ProfDev | ||
| MeetingNotes |
File Organization:
One Approach
| TOP LEVEL | 2nd LEVEL | FILE-LEVEL CONVENTION |
|---|---|---|
| LibraryWork | Liaison | YYYY_Faculty_Class |
| GovDocs | varies | |
| LibraryStatistics | YYYY_Type | |
| DataServices | YYYY_Project_DocName |