Better Together: Collaborative Solutions to the Challenges of Data and Libraries

Data is changing the world we live in. The ubiquity of data has implications for our individual users, our organizations, the development of our communities and, increasingly our own future roles as library professionals operating in an environment of rapid change. Understanding and working with data is no longer an innovative strategic direction or a choice, but an expectation.  How has this evolution affected work in our libraries and information organizations and what strategies are being employed to join resources together to go farther? Data in libraries presents many challenges and a steep learning curve to build capacity, but these aspects are more strategically overcome through collaboration. This session seeks case studies and creative solutions demonstrated by librarians and information technologists who are partnering to define roles, leverage strengths, build tools, and who model effective collaborations to meet the challenges of working with data. 

The Big Data SIG is seeking papers focused on finding collaborative solutions to the practical challenges of working with data.

Topics may include (but are not limited to): 

  • Successful collaborative research methods and/or development of tools used for data analysis
  • Practical reports on shared data processing and cleaning functions or an iterative analysis process
  • Collaborative ways to create data platforms, training data and data worksets
  • Project reports from partners working on analyzing / using data or implementing algorithmic methods to solve problems and increase efficiency
  • Perspectives on the usefulness of data: user studies, persona development, usability assessments
  • Organizational structures that support collaboration and development of staffing models that evolve roles or support development of data-focused workflows
  • Synergies in data use, reuse, sharing, documentation, description, access, and archiving among and between various communities
  • Cross-community collaborations that  build connections for activism and public good using data or computational methods
  • Joint work to share solutions to long-term data challenges such as data preservation

You are invited to submit abstracts in MS-Word or Adobe PDF format by 30 March to Cory Lampert (cory.lampert@unlv.edu). All submissions will be reviewed by the Big Data Special Interest Group Planning Committee and submitters will be notified by 27 April. Full papers of accepted abstracts must be submitted no later than 22 June.

For the full call for papers, please refer to the attached document with submission guidelines and important dates, or visit: https://2020.ifla.org/cfp-calls/big-data/.