Data Curation
In the course of their research, many researchers in this
field collect large amounts of data. Due to its strong connections to the
social sciences, researchers in the field of the history of crime are also
often concerned with statistics and the collection of demographic information.
Much of this data may never be published in any form but it may still be useful
to other scholars.
Many university libraries are beginning to implement data
curation services. These services are often connected to institutional
repositories and made available online. With constant changes in technology and
added pressure from granting agencies, such initiatives are becoming more and
more popular.
The History of Crime data curation project would create a
History of Crime Collection within the YorkSpace
institutional repository.[1] Here
scholars could submit not only articles but also significant data sets either
as a companion to published articles and books or as an independent research
output. The library would provide
training on criteria, formats, organization, and metadata entry. They would
also help to approve both the submitted content and its metadata, and most
importantly, they would preserve and maintain the data in open, accessible, and
up to date formats.[2]
Together the with the help of York University’s data
librarian, the subject liaison librarian will provide interested scholars with
training on which formats to use, best practices with regard to metadata
capture for submissions to YorkSpace,
as well as training on where to find more information about recording and
organizing data and standard best practices.[3] Such
a project would allow York to expand on what other libraries are beginning to
with other faculties and to pilot library supported data curation in the
humanities.
The goal of this project is to preserve unique sets of data
created by faculty and graduate students affiliated with York University. For
graduate students, this project is a way for them to publish their data and
perhaps do so before they have made use of it in their dissertation or future
books. More importantly for our target persona, it would provide opportunities
to learn about statistics and data management as well as a potential source of
information once other scholars have started to submit data sets and articles.
[1] “Welcome
to YorkSpace / Communities in YorkSpace,” YorkSpace Institutional Repository http://pi.library.yorku.ca/dspace/
[accessed 2 December 2012].
[2] “YorkSpace
Policy and Content Guidelines,” YorkSpace
Institutional Repository http://www.library.yorku.ca/cms/yorkspace-toolkit/policy/
[accessed 2 December 2012].
[3] “Library
Data Services,” York University Library http://www.library.yorku.ca/cms/librarydataservices/
[accessed 2 December 2012].
