As part of our research project, “Sustaining Open Research: Institutional Repository Readiness,” the DCN hosted a virtual learning series that focused on supporting IRs that share data in demonstrating alignment with and evaluation of the Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research (DC-DR). While each session can be viewed individually, we invite those that are able to participate in all of them, as the content is cumulative.

Find information about the entire series, including links to recordings and other information here, updated regularly. For questions or comments, please contact PIs Jake Carlson and Mikala Narlock.

Previous Events

Event 4: Developing and maturing IR technology platforms to support data sharing

For the final event in our Sustaining Open Research Virtual Learning Series, join the Data Curation Network for a series of lightning talks about different repository technologies. This event will feature a panel discussion on different repository platform implementations, and how that can be used to support research data services at an institution. We have invited 4 presenters to speak for about 5-7 minutes each, with a moderated panel discussion afterwards. We are asking speakers to respond to the following questions about their repository:

  • What do you love about what it does? 
  • What do you wish it did? 
  • What does it take to run? (dollars, FTE?) Consider not just the platform, but also the unseen processes and infrastructure.

We have combined the slides from the lightning talks into one slide deck. Please note that Kozlowski did not use slides.

Amy Nurnberger graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in biochemistry. After she worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry for over a decade, where she held leadership and management positions in validation engineering, she transitioned into working with children with dyslexia and/or ADHD, which in combination with her deep experience with organizations and information led to her attaining an MS in Information Studies from The University of Texas at Austin iSchool. Amy developed her information career at Columbia University as the Research Data Manager. Amy started her position as Program Head of Data Management Services at MIT in June 2017, and has also served as the Interim Department Head for Data and Specialized Services since July 2021. Spanning the time from 2016-2022, Amy held the position of Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Learning Analytics program, teaching research data management for education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Within the broader research data community, Amy is an active contributor and leader in the global Research Data Alliance (RDA), serving on Council and co-chairing groups, as well as many other regional, national, and global initiatives.

Sara Mannheimer is an Associate Professor and Data Librarian at Montana State University, where she helps shape practices and theories for data curation, data sharing, and data discovery. Her research examines the social, ethical, and technical issues of a data-driven world. She is the Project Director of the IMLS-funded Responsible AI project.

Kristi Holmes is Associate Dean of Knowledge Management and Strategy, the director of Galter Health Sciences Library and Learning Center, and professor of Preventive Medicine in the division of Health and Biomedical Informatics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Holmes serves as the Chief of Knowledge Management in Northwestern’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, and also serves on the leadership team of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), where she directs evaluation and continuous improvement for the institute and several other programs and centers, including the NNLM National Evaluation Center. Her work focuses on the discovery and equitable access to knowledge through collaborative computational and social initiatives, including the role of repositories to enable FAIR data practices and a vibrant sharing ecosystem. She brings extensive experience with highly cooperative technical information projects on the local, national, and international level.

Wendy Kozlowski is the Director, Research Data and Open Scholarship (RDOS), Cornell University Library (CUL) and coordinator of the Cornell Data Services Group (CDS), a cross-campus, collaborative organization that provides data management services to faculty, staff and students throughout the entire research process. The RDOS group is responsible for oversight of Cornell’s Institutional Repository, and CUL’s data services, including curation of datasets in their IR. Wendy’s background is in biology and marine ecology, and her work on an NSF Long Term Ecological Research project before coming to Cornell in 2011, helps her center the researcher perspective in her Open Scholarship and Data work at Cornell.


Event 3: Making the Case for Institutional [Data] Repository Services

Join the Data Curation Network for a webinar on “Making the Case for Institutional [Data] Repository Services.” During this session, our speakers will try to address questions like:

  • What makes Institutional Data Repositories (IDRs) critical to data sharing infrastructure and what is their place in the repository ecosystem? 
  • How will developing a roadmap toward meeting Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories help IDRs underscore their role as essential, critical infrastructure? 
  • If IDRs were able to collectively adopt the desirable characteristics, what would that do for the ecosystem as a whole? 
  • Which characteristic(s) might have the most impact for resources invested?

Heidi Imker, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will start the event with a description of their motivation for developing and establishing their home-grown data repository  based in their University Library. Susan Ivey and Moira Downey, North Carolina State University, will provide a complementary presentation, covering the perspective of a campus-wide approach to a repository, leveraging a vended solution. Tina Baich, IUPUI and US Repository Network, will round out the discussion with a national perspective. Following the presentations, there will be a panel discussion and time for questions. 

Heidi’s slides: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/256412

Susan and Moira’s slides: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/256468

Tina’s slides: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/257172

Heidi Imker is the Director of the Research Data Service (RDS) and the Elaine & Allen Avner Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Research at the University Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The RDS helps researchers across the Urbana-Champaign campus manage and share research data, and in her role as Director, she ensures the RDS takes a collaborative, user-oriented, and practical approach to research support. She and the RDS team frequently publish on data management and sharing practices. Prior to her current position, Heidi was the Executive Director of the Enzyme Function Initiative, which was a large-scale NIH-funded collaborative center located at the Carl R Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. Heidi holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois and did her postdoctoral research at the Harvard Medical School.

Susan Ivey’s experience in academic libraries has centered on managing and preserving digital assets, particularly research data. As RFS Director, Susan leads in launching, managing, and developing the service. She engages with stakeholders and consults with researchers to better manage, describe, preserve, and make available university research data. Before this role, Susan acted as Research Data & Infrastructure Librarian. Prior to joining NC State, she was a Data Repository Content Analyst at Duke University Libraries and Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Mississippi. She received a MS in library and information science from UNC-Chapel Hill and a MA and a BA from NC State.

With nearly 20 years of experience in academic libraries, Moira Downey has a strong background in research data curation, institutional repository services, digital asset management, and library support for the research lifecycle. In her role as Research Facilitator, Moira helps researchers assess the computing and data requirements presented by their research and connects researchers with appropriate IT support. Before beginning as Research Facilitator at NC State, Moira worked as a Repository Services Analyst with Duke University Libraries and as a metadata analyst and cataloger at UNC-Chapel Hill. She holds an M.S. in library and information science and a B.A. in History from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Tina Baich is the Senior Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Content Strategies at IUPUI, and SPARC’s visiting program officer for the U.S. repository network (USRN). She leads the development of a strong U.S. repository community with the aim of ensuring university repositories have a voice at the table with other stakeholder communities, adopt interoperable good practices, and are innovative. Tina is also the Senior Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication & Content Strategies at IUPUI University Library. Her portfolio includes the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship, resource acquisition & description, resource sharing & delivery services, and the Ruth Lilly Special Collections & Archives.


Event 2: Data Sharing Readiness in Academic Institutions

The Data Curation Network has invited a series of speakers that will present on the state of data sharing in academic institutions. After a high-level overview of data sharing readiness based on recent research (Lisa Johnston), Wind Cowles, Director of Data, Research & Teaching, will provide with a case study at Princeton University. The session will close with an update from Cynthia Hudson Vitale on the Realities of Academic Data Sharing Initiative, based at the Association of Research Libraries, who will provide more detailed information about the costs and activities involved in data sharing.

Lisa’s slides: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/255739
Cynthia’s slides: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/255741
Wind’s slides: https://hdl.handle.net/11299/255740

Event 2 Speakers:

Lisa R. Johnston is the director of Data Governance in the Office of Data Management and Analytics Services leading the campus program and policy for institutional data. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison in March 2022, Johnston was the lead of Research Data Services at the University of Minnesota Library and served in numerous roles including director of the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM) and founder and PI for the Data Curation Network (https://datacurationnetwork.org/), a Alfred P Sloan funded multi-institutional collaboration of academic, non-profit, and funder-based data repositories that became a fully sustainable organization in 2021.

Cynthia Hudson-Vitale is the Director, Science Policy and Scholarship in the Association of Research Libraries Scholarship and Policy team. In this role, Cynthia represents and advances the Association’s Scholars & Scholarship program with key partners, allies, and joint ventures to promote ARL’s broad mission of open, equitable scholarly communication, information stewardship, and publishing. Cynthia is also the PI of the Realities of Academic Data Sharing (RADS) Initiative.

Wind Cowles is the Associate Dean for Data, Research, and Teaching at Princeton University Libraries. Before joining Princeton, Dr. Wind Cowles worked at the National Institutes of Health in the Center for Scientific Review and as an associate professor in Linguistics at the University of Florida and the director of the Language and Cognition Lab.


Event 1: Funding Agencies and the Desirable Characteristics 

Join the Data Curation Network to hear from representatives at the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the Department of Transportation and the USDA, and learn how each institution is responding to the evolving requirements to make research data publicly accessible. Full speaker list and information below.

Ashely’s slides (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation): https://hdl.handle.net/11299/255145
Leighton’s slides (Department of Transportation): https://hdl.handle.net/11299/255147
Peter’s slides (National Agriculture Library):  https://hdl.handle.net/11299/255146

Event 1 Speakers:

Peter Arbuckle (pronouns: he/him) is the Branch Chief of Scientific Data Management at the National Agricultural Library and the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Services. He was previously the Product Manager for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Commons, a data repository that supports supply chain energy, material, and environmental impact accounting. He earned his Master of Science in Sustainable Systems from the University of Michigan. 

Leighton L Christiansen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0543-4268 (pronouns: they/them) has been serving as the Data Curator at the National Transportation Library, and as part of the team leading implementation of the U.S. DOT Public Access Plan, since May 2016. In that role, Leighton was part of the team of federal employees that authored “Desirable Characteristics of Data Repositories for Federally Funded Research.” Leighton studied Library and Information Science, and Data Curation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2009 to 2012.

Ashley Farley (she/her): Over the past decade Ashley has worked in both academic and public libraries, focusing on digital inclusion and facilitating access to scholarly content.

She completed her Masters in Library and Information Sciences through the University of Washington’s Information School.

Ashley is the Program Officer of Knowledge and Research Services at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In this capacity she leads the foundation’s Open Access Policy’s implementation and associated initiatives. This includes leading the work of Gates Open Research, a transparent and revolutionary publishing platform. Other core activities involve supporting the strategic and operational aspects of the foundation’s library. This work has sparked a passion for open access, believing that freely accessible knowledge has the power to improve and save lives.