The presentation how librarians can contribute to the emerging field of E-Science and establish relevancy to information institutions. An overview of the field, resource links, Science Boot camps, and other opportunities are covered.

1. Elaine R. Martin, DA
Director of Library Services
University of Massachusetts Medical School
December 6, 2011

2. Highlights
Librarian Needs Assessment
 Researcher and Student Interviews
NER Program Descriptions
Challenges
Lessons Learned
New Projects in Progress
Future Planned Educational Opportunities

3. E-Science Role Definition
Questions
What roles can librarians play in helping researchers
and students manage and preserve data?
What knowledge and skills do practicing librarians
need?
What are the new competencies for librarians in e-
science roles?
What are the new jobs?
How can we create a community of E-Science
librarians in the New England Region (NER)?
How can NER help?

4. NER Librarian Needs
Assessment
Brainstorming session at regional E-Science
symposium in April 2009
Follow-up Survey Monkey regional needs assessment
conducted summer 2009
“What are the biomedical and science librarians E-
Science web portal user needs and web 2.0
preferences in order to support the development and
strengthening of libraries’ E-Science initiatives and
collaborations?”

5. Researchers and Students Needs:
Data Interview Questions
How are data in the lab or research environment
used?
How do researchers manage, preserve and store data?
How easy would it be to share the data with another
researcher who needed or wanted access (e.g. data
sharing plan)?
What is the role for the library? IT? Other groups on
campus?
Case study development

6. Student and Researcher
Findings
Data were scattered and poorly managed
Curriculum needed to teach data management to
researchers and their students
Assistance with NSF data management plans

7. Librarian Needs: Education and
Collaboration
Online tutorials for both E-Science related tools and
background/content knowledge for librarians
Continuing education (science disciplines as well as
with respect to data management) for librarians
Support from the library community (University of
Massachusetts, Boston Library Consortium, and
NN/LM,NER) for librarian sharing of role definition
Source: JMLA 99(2):153-56, Apr 2011

8. Regional Program Response
Initiatives bringing health sciences and science
librarians together:
E-Science Bootcamp focused on building science
discipline knowledge
One day workshops on scientific or data management
topics based on existing research at campuses (stem
cell; nanotechnology; data curation and management)
E-Science Symposium (4th
annual)
NER Portal Project
E-Science Librarian Community of Interest (COI)

9. E-Science Web Portal Project
esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu
Regional Initiative with UMass Med in the lead
Build a one stop shopping website for librarians to
learn about science and data management

10. E-Science Web Portal Project
esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu
•Educate Librarians about Science (tutorials)
http://esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu/biochemistry-
video

11. E-Science Web Portal Project
esciencelibrary.umassmed.edu
Include current news and initiatives
Highlight current projects and best practices
Create collaborative using advisory and editorial
boards to identify, link to existing and create original
content
Engage the librarians in New England (blog) to foster
a community of learning

12. Data Management Curriculum
Development
IMLS grant to bring data management skills to
student researchers (UMass and WPI); develop
learning objectives and lesson plans for data
management curriculum
Identify data repository requirements for student
projects (student data repository)
Develop tutorials for web-based case-based data
management curriculum

13. Data Management Course
Module 0: Introduction and Need
Module 1:Data: Types, Stages, and Formats
Module 2: Metadata
Module 3: Data Backup, Storage
Module 4: Legal and Ethical Considerations
Module 5: Data Sharing and Reuse Policies
Module 6: Archiving and Preservation
http://library.umassmed.edu/imls_grant.cfm

14. NSF Data Management Plan:
Library Impact
Foster discussion around the implications for libraries
and librarians
Share model services in plan development
Data Management Curriculum development
Track changed librarian job descriptions
Provide information on the portal, at the symposium
and other NER venues
NER creates opportunities for sharing plans, lessons
learned, etc.

15. Challenges for E-Science
Librarians
Debate: How much science do librarians working
with researchers need to know?
For NER-How do you manage the collaboration?
How do you teach data management? How do you
engage the research community? Faculty? Students?
Clinical Researchers?
NSF Data Management Plan—impact on grant
funding? What kind of assistance can the library
provide?

16. Lessons Learned
We need to partner (with science majors, science
librarians, main campus computing centers, library
schools, health science librarians, researchers, IT,
etc.)
We need to re-tool our staff with new skills in science
(basic science knowledge and scientific process)
We need to develop staff with skills in data
management, preservation, metadata, etc.
We need new kinds of staff – new job descriptions
NN/LM, NER can create venues for collaboration and
education

17. NER Research Projects (In –
Progress)
What are the librarian competencies needed to work
in E-Science?
What are the educational programs available to train
E-Science librarians? Where are the gaps? Where can
NER fill those gaps?
What is the vocabulary for E-Science librarianship?
(What are the knowledge domains?)
Follow-up and response to the article E-Science
Librarianship: Undefined; Can we define it?
How will data management instruction take place?

18. Upcoming Regional Activities
and Events
Seek regional partners for implementation of data
management curriculum
Launch the Journal of E-Science Librarianship
(anticipated January 2012)
Assist NER Network members in creating a new
professional identity focused on data management
and preservation via educational offerings

19. April 4, 2012
E-Science Symposium

20. E-Science Bootcamp
Science Bootcamp at Tufts, June 13-15, 2012
Astronomy
session,
Science Boot
Camp 2011

21. E-Science Professional Days
Spring 2012 and Fall 2012
Introduction to Metadata (May 9, 2012)
Examples of uses of metadata by local area librarians
Keynote speaker: Diane Hillman, Director of
Metadata Initiatives, Syracuse
Institutional Repositories (November 2012)

22. Journal of E-Science
Librarianship
First issue –symposium papers and posters
Open call for papers
Editors are UMMS librarians
Reviewers are members of E-Science COI
B-Press online publishing and reviewer system
Coming soon!