Hacking the Academy: Open in Action

Come celebrate Open Access Week by learning how UW faculty and staff are working to keep their work open. The Hacking the Academy: Open in Action program will begin with four short talks, followed by time for discussion around the theme "Open in Action." Speakers include Rachel Arteaga (public scholarship), Steven Roberts (open science/open data), Dan Berger (public scholarship), and Justin Marlowe (open textbooks). Please join us October 26, 4-5pm in the Research Commons Green A! 

Big Data to Knowledge Webinars and Discussion Groups

The UW Health Sciences Library and Research Data Services are collaborating with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/Pacific Northwest Region, to provide a monthly discussion group focused on issues around Data Science, with a focus on biomedical science. The discussion group will provide a venue for those interested in the National Institutes of Health’s Big Data to Knowledge “Guide to the Fundamentals of Data Science,” a series of online lectures given by experts from across the country covering a range of diverse topics in data science.

The online lecture series is an introductory overview that assumes no prior knowledge or understanding of data science, and will run all year, once per week, from 9-10am Pacific Time. The list of speakers through the beginning of 2017 is available online. Upcoming topics include Ontologies, Metadata, Provenance, Databases, Social Networking Data, Exploratory Data Analysis, and lots more.

Academic librarians and others interested in biomedical big data from around the Puget Sound are invited to join a monthly Friday discussion group on October 14, November 18 and December 16. The group will meet at 8:45am to watch the week’s BD2K online lecture, and then from 10-11am share insights or questions about that week’s topic, and previous lectures in the series. All discussion groups will be held in The Health Sciences Pacific Room.

Questions? Email Emily Patridge at ep001 (at) uw.edu.

UW Hosting Trial of Data-Planet Statistical Datasets

UW librarians, faculty, and researchers are invited to learn more about the power of Data-Planet Statistical Datasets, the largest repository of standardized and structured data. We have trial access to this database along with the others listed at http://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/db-trial. 

Data-Planet founder Richard Landry will highlight subjects and sources covered, along with functionality, features, and visualization tools. You’ll leave with tips for searching, manipulating, and exporting data from over 70+ government and private sources, covering 35 billion data points in 4.9 billion datasets. 

Please register for the UW Libraries Data-Planet Statistical Datasets Webinar on Thursday, Oct 13, 2016 12:00 PM PDT at:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1191767628182916610 

Participate remotely or join a group viewing of the webinar: Suzzallo Library, RAD. Thunderbird Conference Rm. (if you don’t work in the UW Libraries, contact cass@uw.edu for info about this location). 

Please visit  online for additional information: 

http://data-planet.com

http://data-planet.libguides.com

Please contact Cass Hartnett at cass@uw.edu or Marcy Rothman at mrothman@data-planet.com with any questions or special requests! 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. We look forward to hearing your feedback!

Software Carpentry Workshop: Oct 10-13 @UWescience

Software Carpentry is a non-profit volunteer organization whose members teach researchers computing skills. 

On October 10th-13th, we will hold a four-day (mornings-only) Software Carpentry workshop at the UW eScience Data Science Studio. The workshop is focused on software tools to make researchers more effective, allowing them to automate research tasks, automatically track their research over time, and use programming to accelerate their research, and make it more reproducible.

In the workshop, we will have two parallel tracks: one in which we will focus on the programming language R, and the other in which we will focus on Python. 

For details, and to register for the upcoming workshop, please refer to the following web-page: https://uwescience.github.io/2016-10-10-uw/

Upcoming Data Management Planning Workshop

Do you create or use data in your research? Looking for tips and tools to better help you manage your research data, and preserve it for long-term use?

On August 22, the UW Libraries is offering Data Management Planning, an asynchronous online workshop for UW community members engaged in research with data. Topics will include getting started with data management planning, funder requirements for data sharing, metadata, tips to help keep you organized, sharing, archiving and preservation, and an introduction to tools and on-campus support to aid researchers.

Full course information and link to registration is below. Contact us with any questions.

Data Management Planning Workshop

A free, tutor-supported online workshop

August 22 - 25, 2016

Duration: Monday, August 22, 2016 - Thursday, August 25, 2016 (4 days)

Time Commitment: Approximately 30 minutes to 1 hour per day, for 4 straight days

Target audience: UW community members engaged in research with data.

Prerequisites: Access to the internet for each of the 4 days identified. A valid UW NetID is also required.

Description:

• This module-based workshop consists of activities and peer discussion forums that will provide tips on how to effectively plan for data management over the lifecycle of your research project.
• By asking students to share experiences with one another, this workshop gives you the opportunity to reflect on your research workflow and to see how various techniques and tools can be employed to most effectively manage, share and preserve your data.

Participation Process:

• This workshop will take place in Canvas over 4 days, with no fixed participation times (asynchronous).
• Each day corresponds to one online module, which includes a topic overview, resources, activity, and peer discussion forum.
• Discussion forums are the workshop's primary means of 'assessment,' so expect to post to forums daily.
• You will be guided through the course by a team of friendly librarian tutors, who will answer questions and provide feedback.

How to Join:

• If interested, please register via this Catalyst link no later than Friday, August 19, 2016.
• Space in the workshop is limited, and participants will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. Students who register after capacity is reached may be placed on a wait list.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Data Services Team.

Society of American Archivists to discuss research data management

In the next month, the Society of American Archivists' Records Management Roundtable has planned a series of blog posts to foster discussion on research data management. The roundtable's blog The Schedule will "feature posts describing collaborative efforts to address research data management, resources and outreach initiatives, incorporating research records into a retention schedule, and the question of faculty research as a public record."

Comments are encouraged, so make sure to follow the blog, watch the discussion, and participate!

Data Science Studio Office Hours for Spring Quarter

As a reminder, the WRF Data Science Studio offers several types of drop-in office hours to meet the needs of those working in data-intensive science. The program brings together expertise from the eScience Data Scientists, UW libraries, UW-IT, and the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS) to help triage challenges in data-intensive science – including cloud computing – and steer people towards appropriate solutions. Assistance may be in the form of immediate help, a longer meeting with our team to understand the problem more deeply, or a referral  you to faculty on campus with relevant expertise.

For more information, see http://escience.washington.edu/dss-hours.