This post was authored by intern Maria Arteaga Cuevas (Maria.Cuevas@nyulangone.org), as part of DCN’s partnership with the National Center for Data Services (NCDS). Each intern has been invited to author a blog post on the annual All Hands Meeting held in June 2022. These internships are funded with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).*

Why is feedback so important to the Data Curation Network? In my previous experience, I usually get a feedback request at the end of a conference or when taking a survey, but this year the DCN had some great feedback sessions incorporated into their three day All Hands Meeting (AHM). On the first day of the AHM there was a guided feedback session titled “DCN Listening” which had three mini sessions with topics like curation, community, and general feedback. It was a fantastic way to set the tone for the rest of the meeting. Not only was there open communication with valuable viewpoints and fantastic ideas, the importance of the topic was amplified by it being one of the first couple of sessions of a three day meeting. 

The second day of the all hands was mostly composed of Peer-Compare sessions. I first heard about Peer-Compare from the DCN’s blog post “Peer-Compare in the DCN: Research Data Preservation Practices.” The themes of these sessions are developed using topics that DCN members had expressed interest in or suggested in the past. In the spirit of collaboration and providing feedback for future DCN endeavors, possible Peer-Compare themes were shared by DCN members during the meetings.  By the end of the third day (a half day!), it was noticeable how comfortable everybody was with each other. Ideas continued flowing for new projects and research, and the special interest groups shared with us the amazing work they have been up to in the past year. 

We all know how difficult it is to communicate through Zoom, but the chats were lively and extended on the foundation that was built on the first day. It’s clear that this is a space where every curator’s voice is heard and valued. As an intern just starting out in the MLIS field, this year’s AHM was a very nice sneak peak into some incredible collaborative work.

To cite this blog post, please use: Arteaga Cuevas, Maria. (2022). The DCN Listens. Data Curation Network. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/229560.

*This project has been funded with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), under cooperative agreement number UG4LM01234 with the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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