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!
Talya Cooper is the Research Curation Librarian at New York University. Talya was interviewed by Neggin Keshavarizan in October 2024.
How did you come to your current position?
My first position at NYU was a grant funded position as part of a project called Collaborating on Software Archiving For Institutions. The PI was my now-colleague, Vicky Rampin. Our goal was to work on developing a tool and workflow for preserving the research software (and importantly, all of the contextual documentation) that’s hosted on web-based platforms like GitHub and GitLab. I worked on the grant for about a year and a half, and then my current position opened up, and I was lucky to be accepted into the role. I had honestly never heard of data or research curation before I got my initial job at NYU.
What do you do?
My title is Research Curation Librarian. I work with our wonderful community of researchers at NYU to facilitate deposits to our repository, Ultraviolet. I’m part of a team here in our Data Services department, which includes a lot of familiar DCN faces like Alex Provo, Vicky Rampin, and Nick Wolf. We put our heads together to think through all the curation issues that come up, and do everything we can to promote our curation and data management services around the university. We also do a lot of tweaking and testing of the actual repository software, Invenio-RDM, in collaboration with our really great product manager and developer.
As part of my job here I have to earn a second master’s degree. So I am currently in school getting an MA in addition to, and as part of, my job.
Follow up question: The MA degree is in what program?
I’m at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, which is a “make your own major” school, and I plan to do a science and technology studies and history of science project. I want to look at archival scientific data–how it has been reused in the past, and how scientists now are using archival data–as a way to think about the future of data reuse. It seems very relevant to a lot of the work that we’re doing in DCN.
How much of your job involves data curation?
Almost all of it. It’s the core focus of my responsibilities. Right now, I have the really awesome opportunity to be training a grad student data curator who has a specialized focus on urban studies-related data, so working with her and supervising her is also part of my work. Then as part of the Data Services team, I also work on things like teaching and trainings; I teach workshops on reproducibility and data privacy and security.
Why is data curation important to you?
So, my background is in digital preservation and archives. Before I came to NYU on the grant I was a digital archivist–well, at that time, an unemployed digital archivist. Something I think about a lot is how if you’re going to make a point of keeping something, you should know what it is and what it’s useful for. Data curation ensures that as we store and preserve things, a process that requires resources and intention, that the objects we’re keeping will be meaningfully findable and reusable in the future, and we’re not just kind of tossing unidentified bits and bobs into a bin and forgetting about them.
So for me, the core of data curation work is really the forward-looking piece of it: knowing that these things are being preserved because they have lasting value, and ensuring that lasting value is something that people will be able to easily draw out and comprehend.
Why is the Data Curation Network important?
I came to research curation with very little background in it. Like I said, I was a digital archivist. There were pieces of the puzzle that I was really missing. The great thing about DCN is that almost everyone comes to data curation in that way. They’re familiar with a portion of what it is that we do as part of this process, whether they have disciplinary expertise, programming skills, data-specific expertise, etc. And we’re all able to come together with this attitude of humility and an openness to learning, and grow together.
It makes my life and my job so much easier just because there is such reassurance knowing that the DCN is a resource that’s always available to me, and everyone is so kind and so great and not judgmental about what you do or don’t know. I also really appreciate that DCN thinks through not just the technical pieces of what we do, but also the greater implications and the ethical aspects of the work and that’s really valuable to me.
If you weren’t doing data curation, what would you be doing?
Well, my first love is archiving. So I would probably be a digital archivist or a digital preservation person. But I also worked for a time in the research department of a news organization, and I love doing research. Lately I’ve been doing general reference at the library’s reference desk, and it’s the most fun thing in the world. So maybe I would be a news researcher–that would be really cool.
What’s your favorite cuisine?
I could not possibly pick, and luckily living where I do in Queens, New York, which is one of the most diverse places in the world, I don’t have to. Basically every type of cuisine that you could think of is all either a walk or a subway ride away.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I have some pretty classic librarian hobbies. I love reading, and I love knitting and other fiber crafts. I’m also a really big baseball fan. In the summer, the New York Mets occupy a lot of my time and emotional energy.
In the winter I tend to shift focus more to watching movies. I make the most of my Criterion Channel membership and I like to hit up the great independent and repertory theaters around the city. I also like to go on long walks around the city and find new parks and pockets of urban nature.
What’s your favorite city?
I have lived in New York City for over 20 years, and when I return home, and my plane is landing at one of our fine regional airports, I always feel my heart thumping with excitement to be back in the New York groove. For all of its flaws, such as the expense, and a mayor who is under federal indictment, I still believe that this is the greatest city in the world.
Where would you most like to travel to next (state/country/continent/city)?
The next place that I will be traveling is to Miami where my brother and his family live, and I’ll be making a side trip to the Florida Keys, where I’ve never been before. If anyone from the DCN has South Florida travel tips, I would love to hear them.
Also, my partner has been to 49 states, and is only missing Alaska, so I’m hoping that we can go there soon so he can check that off the list. I’ve been to Alaska before, but it was for work, and I barely left the conference hotel, so I feel like I need some Alaska redemption.
Finally, I went to Mexico City for the first time last year, and I absolutely loved it, and I would love to spend more time there and explore other parts of Mexico.
To learn more about Talya, and the datasets she has curated for the DCN, see her curator page!