Data Information Literacy: Multiple Paths to a Single Goal

Objective: What skills will graduate students need to be successful in managing, working with and curating their research data? This poster reports on initial results from a two-year project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that is centered on exploring this question. Methods: The project is comprised of five teams (each made up of two librarians and a faculty researcher) from four institutions (Purdue University, University of Oregon, University of Minnesota, and Cornell University). After identifying the needs of their audience each team developed a tailored approach to bring instruction to their respective graduate students. The involvement of a faculty researcher, and pre-instruction interviews of graduate students in each team, ensured that the program developed was indeed relevant to researchers’ real world data needs. Results: Each team constructed an educational program that was tailored to address the issues identified by our faculty partners. Several commonalities as well as needs for data information literacy skills were discovered across all five teams. Other needs were more specific to the discipline (Natural Resources, Civil Engineering, Ecology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Agricultural and Biological Engineering) or to the local environment of the faculty partner. Both the shared and local needs will be addressed in the poster. Conclusion: Future work in the project will be to analyze collectively the experiences of each team in order to develop a model. The model will serve to inform librarians seeking to develop their own data information literacy programs