What's trending: libraries and data specialists digging for data down under
| Date | 02 September 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2019-0046 |
| Pages | 18-19 |
| Published date | 02 September 2019 |
| Author | Adetoun A. Oyelude |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
What’s trending: libraries and data specialists
digging for data down under
Adetoun A. Oyelude
Data are information or knowledge
represented or coded in a suitable form
for processing or for use in another
form. It can be defined or described in
many ways depending on its contextual
use. Data are a set of values of subjects
with respect to qualitative or quantitative
variables which can be measured,
collected, reported and analyzed, such
that it can be visualized using graphs,
images or other analytical tools. In
computing, data are any sequence of
one or more symbols given meaning
by specific act(s) of interpretation
(Wikipedia). In librarianship, data are
information stored in any form or
format, that can be used to make
informed decisions and which can be
processed in various ways to produce
more data (for example, big data) for
processing.
A data librarian provides comprehensive
data services in support of teaching,
learning, and research needs. Such a
librarian leads data management
initiatives and works collaboratively
with others to define and meet data
needs. Therefore, when data librarians
converge to dig deep into data, much is
expected. Digging for data down under
thus holds special focus and outcomes.
This edition of the column focuses on
“digging for data down under” by
taking a critical look at data from down
under, and related library and information
specialists’ work in the first half of 2019.
The expression “down under” is used
mostly for issues concerning Australia.
This article may not necessarily be
about data in Australia, but certainly
explores much of it at the same time.
Debra Fagan in a Dryad News and
Views blog posted on February 28,
2019 reported on the 14th International
Digital Curation Conference (IDCC), an
event arranged annually for people
involved in digital curation and
preservation. The 2019 IDCC theme
was “Collaborations and Partnerships:
addressing the big digital challenges
together”, and it addressed what the
Data Curation Network is all about. The
Data Curation Network ideally works to
connect a network of expert data
curators with a view to “increase local
curation capacity, strengthen collaboration
and support the sharing of research
data”. Debra alluded to the work by
Richard Ferers on another blog called
valman.blogspotfound at https://valman.
blogspot.com/2019/02/the-value-of-non-
profit-dryad-and.html, in which the
“value of non-profit: Dryad and
California Digital Library” was
discussed. The narrative ended with
future gaze at the fact that “curators
will do it all again at the 15th
International Digital Curation Conference
in (drum roll, please) [...] Dublin,
Ireland!” See more at https://blog.
datadryad.org/2019/02/28/data-curation-
from-down-under-the-14th-international-
digital-curation-conference/
Still digging down under for data, it
is found that the banking industry in
Australia is going places. According to
tink.com in a post on February 21, 2019:
Australia’s open banking regulation is
the Consumer Data Right (CDR),
designed to give Australian citizens
greater control over their data and to
drive business innovation. Australia
offers a perfect environment for open
banking. It is ranked as the fifth most
fintech [financial technology company]
friendly market globally and the
population likes to pay digitally. (https://
tink.com/blog/2019/02/20/open-banking-
australia)
Open banking is used in the industry
in Australia and by July 2020 all banks
are supposed to be able to make credit
and debit card, deposit and transaction
account details open. The implications
for libraries are obvious. Data are in
use, and bills have to be paid. Find out
more at https://stripe.com/connect/eu-
guide
From the bigdatadownunder.com
blog (https://bigdatadownunder.com/)
can be found articles on data down
under. One of such interesting posts is
by Matthew Zwolenski posted on May
6, 2019, about the Dell Technologies
World (DTW) event and its impact on
him. The Dell Technologies Cloud is a
combined strategy and architecture on a
multi-cloud platform enabled by Dell
EMC and VMware (a cloud service that
takes care of operating the infrastructure,
deploying it; troubleshooting issues; and
performing patching, upgrading and
maintenance of the cloud). He described
his being impressed by the product
launches; financial justification of the
move to multi-cloud; and E-Sports &
Gaming among other technologies
displayed.
A June 18, 2019 post on Open
science and research data – a view from
down under by Nicholas Wallace
describes Rosie Hicks, head of the
Australian Research Data Commons’
thoughts on open science. In it, she
suggested that Europe and Australia
should make sure their data sharing
infrastructures interoperable. This is to
ensure that the Australian Research
Data Commons (ARDC), a government-
backed project established last year can
pull together industry, universities and
the public sector to coordinate the
sharing and open publication of
research data. Existing infrastructure
are envisioned to be a single point of
access to any data at all, no matter
where it is domiciled. See more at
https: // sciencebusiness.net /viewpoint/
open - science-and-research-data-view-
down-under
An Australian company that
provides geoscience and tech services
to the oil and gas industry is gearing up
to present “the world’s fastest
supercomputer”. Houston is the U.S.
headquarters for DownUnder GeoScience
which is putting together a 15-megawatt
18 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 7 2019, pp. 18-19, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-07-2019-0046
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