This post is part of our Curators’ Corner series. Every so often we’ll feature a different DCN Curator. The series grew out of a community-building activity wherein curators at our partner organizations interview each other “chain-letter style” in order to get to know each other and their work outside of the DCN better. We hope you enjoy these posts!
Lauren Phegley is the Research Data Engineer at the University of Pennsylvania. Lauren was interviewed by Halle Burns in August 2024.
How did you come to your current position?
I came to the University of Pennsylvania from graduate school. I worked at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign in their Research Data Service in the Main Library, with some people who are very active in the DCN. That is how I came to know the DCN. For two years I was their graduate assistant, doing instruction work and assisting with different projects. I was hired into my current position at the University of Pennsylvania upon graduation.
What do you do?
While my title is Research Data Engineer, I really am the equivalent of a data management librarian. I do consultations on data – basically everything related to data management, data sharing, and doing some more work with persistent identifiers. I help run ScholarlyCommons, which is our institutional repository which also accepts data. I do data curation and create DOIs. I have a large part in a variety of different things. Lots of different buckets, but I like it that way. I get bored if it’s all the same thing. I really enjoy instruction because it allows me to meet a person’s needs in a way that I am also learning about the subject. It’s just the most satisfying thing when you really are able to meet the needs of somebody where they’re at.
How much of your job involves data curation?
The short answer is not as much as I would like. I do enjoy data curation. We only recently set up our institutional repository in such a way that we make data a bigger aspect that we’re really emphasizing. I helped develop our data curation service but not a lot of people know about it. So I would say maybe like one project every quarter, but I’ve done two curations for the DCN. It’s been nice when Mikala reaches out and I get to sink my fingers into some data.
Why is data curation important to you?
It’s important to me, because it is important to the research and the researcher, they just don’t often know it. It’s making sure that we add value to all of the hard work that they’ve done, spending years to create and collect this data set. I think it’s such a waste if they are unable to actually make it available to others and usable simply because there’s some small (or maybe large) issues with how it’s organized or set up for documentation. I really hate that. The idea of all of that work going to waste – it’s very upsetting. When you [as a curator] add that value, you can see how happy they are. You get that satisfaction of doing a sometimes very unappreciated activity.
Why is the Data Curation Network important?
First off, it’s a community where we can learn from one another. We’re very active and supportive of everybody in the community. We all have a shared goal and we’re all working to educate ourselves. I think that we’re pushing the understanding and the efforts of this field. But then also we’re supporting people who don’t have the expertise, the ability to curate the dataset, or the ability to do it at that time. And that distributed model really does help. The idea that a rising tide lifts all boats? Really, the DCN allows it to happen.
If you weren’t doing data curation, what would you be doing?
I think I would have continued in my education and I would have gotten my master’s and PhD in forensic anthropology. I studied taphonomy in community college and wrote my undergraduate thesis on forensic anthropology, and I found it fascinating. I really wanted to continue my work in studying how data applies to forensic anthropology and how they document their work. It’s an area where ethics [really applies], and you only have that interaction with that person, that corpse, once. You have to have the utmost respect and the utmost dedication to really documenting what is a one time thing.
What’s your favorite cuisine?
Now we’re getting into the hard questions. It’s easy to talk about the DCN and it’s hard to talk about my favorite cuisine. I would say Mexican. I could eat tacos, corn tortillas, all day every day for the rest of my life, and be completely satisfied. The [corn tortilla] smell is really so good. It’s satisfying and feels like a hug.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I’m a big gardener. I don’t have a huge garden, but I like to be outside in nature, so I like to go hiking. I’m a big reader. I love to cook. I like to try new foods. I’m a big baker. I just made babka recently. It’s great to have a friend who doesn’t like to cook or bake (as the friend who likes to do that), because then you can enable my hobby. Please allow me to buy this pound bag of pine nuts so I can make you pesto.
I really like to go to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum which is a freshwater tidal marsh that’s by the Philadelphia International Airport. It is a great place to hike, and I also like to bird. If you go there in the morning you can see egrets, herons, and swallows.
What’s your favorite city?
I grew up around Chicago so it’s a place that I love. I feel like you’re never done exploring it. It’s right by the lake, has great access if you want to go to Indiana or Wisconsin. It’s a beautiful little nucleus to get into nature, but also Chicago has (I would argue) the best art museum in the world. I, personally, am a huge fan of the Shedd Aquarium.
Where would you most like to travel to next (state/country/continent/city)?
The next big place I’m planning on traveling to is actually for IASSIST 2025, to go to Bristol. I’ve been saving my professional development money to go there, and I’m very excited. I think once I go there, I would like to go to Scotland.
To learn more about Lauren, and the datasets she has curated for the DCN, see her curator page!