Last month, October 26-27, the Data Curation Network held an in-person Specialized Data Curation Workshop in the Research Collaboration Studio of Wilson Library in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was our first in-person workshop since the previous IMLS funded offerings in 2018-2019. We were incredibly excited to begin offering these workshops again, at our administrative home at the University of Minnesota no less!
These workshops are free to attend and use real-world datasets to allow participants hands-on practice curating datasets through the DCN’s CURATE(D) workflow. These workshops prioritize peer-to-peer learning, meaning as much as the DCN instructors lecture, lead exercises, and share our experiences, we really value input from attendees who can share the tools, workflows, and practices of their institutions.
This workshop brought together 25 attendees from across the United States, representing academic institutions, national laboratories, and specialized repositories. Attendees brought a diversity of experience, with some attendees bringing years of experience, and others still testing the curation waters. Following the workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to develop their own data curation primer alongside other attendees with the support of a DCN member as a mentor. These peer-reviewed, living document outputs will benefit not only the creators, but also the wider research data management community in learning how to curate different data types and formats.
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this event– we always learn so much from you and your experiences. This group also provided incredibly valuable feedback that will ensure future workshops can be improved.
Thank you to our instructors, Wanda, Wendy, Sophia, and Shanda, for creating an engaging learning environment.
Thank you to all of the event staff that made this workshop possible, including but not limited to: Adelaide Paris (UMN), AfroDeli catering, and the UMN Libraries Communication Team for photographing our event.
Our next in-person workshop will be held in Summer 2023, with exact dates and location coming in early 2023. If you’d like to stay in the know, subscribe to our newsletter, where we share all active calls for participation!
Images, from top to bottom, all copyright of the University of Minnesota:
- Shanda Hunt, Public Health Librarian and Data Curation Specialist at the University of Minnesota
- Wanda Marsolek, Engineering Liaison and Data Curation Librarian at the University of Minnesota
- Wendy Kozlowski, Data Curation Specialist at Cornell University
- Sophia Lafferty-Hess, Senior Research Data Management Consultant at Duke University