This post was authored by Shawna Taylor, Project Manager, Open Science, at the Association of Research Libraries.
For the third year in a row, we are pleased to announce that the Data Curation Network has been selected as a site host for the National Center for Data Services (NCDS) Data Services Internship Program, led by Peace Ossom and Justin de la Cruz. NCDS of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) has offered these internships for the past three years for people from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, with the goal of the program “to introduce students from historically excluded racial and ethnic groups to data librarianship in a health sciences context.” This year, NCDS DCN interns will be learning and working with Tableau, OpenRefine, and Voyant to clean and visualize data curator job postings data. They will also experiment with AI tools to determine if any are useful for data cleaning.
Mikala Narlock and I will continue to serve as site host mentors, guiding the interns through their projects and helping them acclimate to the DCN. Alexandra Provo and Sherry Lake will provide technical mentorship, ensuring that the interns have the support they need to effectively use the tools and technologies involved.
We also extend our gratitude to Cody Hennesy, Computational Research Librarian at the University of Minnesota, for his technical expertise in creating our dataset, which will serve as a foundational resource for the interns’ work.
Meet the Interns!
Kimberly Carlo
Institution and Program: University at Buffalo, Information and Library Science, MS
What has been your favorite class or topic so far during your graduate program?: So far, I really enjoyed my Information Life Cycle class. I found it challenging and valuable. That class has led me to be interested in learning more about data.
What is one standout thing you’ve learned recently, either during your grad program or outside of your program?: Something I have learned is as information professionals, we continuously want to demonstrate the value of resources that the library has to offer and understand library users as much as possible.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “data”?: Facts and statistics that can and should be made accessible for public use.
Tonja Cunningham
Institution and Program: East Carolina University, Masters in Library Science
What has been your favorite class or topic so far during your graduate program?: Collection Development. In class, I learned about the thought processes I would need to apply when assessing the functionality and relevance of a library collection. In practice, during my internship with Central Piedmont Community College, I had the opportunity to apply those principles as I contributed to the library’s selection list.
What is one standout thing you’ve learned recently, either during your grad program or outside of your program?: The importance of maintaining a library archive. During my internship experiences at both Central Piedmont Community college and my local public library, I was surprised at how important the archives were to the library. They provide unique primary sources for students and patrons that they can personally see and touch. Also, in a world where so many things can be duplicated and replicated, the treasures of the library and archives are truly rare.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “data”?: A collection of facts.
Jasmine Phillips
Institution and Program: Florida State University, Master of Science in Information
What has been your favorite class or topic so far during your graduate program?: One of my favorite topics during my graduate program was learning how to build a digital library, and then having the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice by actually creating one.
What is one standout thing you’ve learned recently, either during your grad program or outside of your program?: Something that stood out to me during my program was learning about data ethics, the ethical use of data, especially with the amount of data that is collected.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “data”?: When it comes to data, I think about all of the data that is created regularly and the importance of managing it effectively.
Please join us in welcoming our interns!