The Power of Open Data! Renaine Julian May 14, 2015

PowerPoint template from: www.presentationmagazine.com

Overview

1. Defining open data

2. Open as the new default

3. Data literacy in academic libraries

4. Open data sources for academic libraries

5. Public library applications with open data

Photo credit: geothink.ca

What is Research Data?

“Data are outputs of research and inputs to scholarly publications and inputs to subsequent sharing and learning” (Borgman 2007)

Data’s Double Role:

-Product

-Source

Defining Open Data

Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share alike.

• Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.

• Reuse and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets.

• Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, reuse and redistribute - there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavor or against persons or groups.

Source: Open Data Handbook

Open vs. Closed Data

Open Data

• Available on the web• Free to download/use• Non-proprietary file formats (.txt,

.csv)

• Copyright

Non-Open Data

• Not available on the web• Data behind paywall• Proprietary file formats

(Stata, .xls)

• Copyright

Emerging Federal Requirements

“The Administration is committed to ensuring that…the direct results of federally funded scientific research are made available to and useful for the public, industry, and the scientific community. Such results include peer-reviewed publications and digital data” (Holdren 2013).Source: Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research

Emerging Federal Requirements

Why is this important?

• Greater public access to publicly funded research

• Greater transparency in funded research • Streamlined discovery process• Access to more data!

Photo credit: http://jerryfahrni.com/

Success Stories in Open Data

Researchers analyzed design and data from 3 previous studies that linked hormone replacement therapy to breast cancer

Looked at whether studies controlled for confounding factors

Researchers found that studies failed to meet majority of 9 criteria needed to determine causality

Photo source: http://www.slideshare.net/carlystrasser/unt-scientific-data-management-and-sharing

Data (Info) Literacy

Defining Information Literacy:

“A set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

Defining Data Literacy:

“Ability to collect, process, manage, evaluate and use data” (Shorish 2015)*

More on Data Literacy

• Humanities and Social Sciences projects are increasingly data-driven (Shorish 2015)

• Data literacy should be incorporated into outreach and instruction librarian workflow

• More undergraduates are working with research data

• Data literacy skill vital outside of academics – entry level jobs working with data

Photo source: Renaine Julian using http://tagcrowd.com/

Example: ECO 3431 – Analysis of Economic Data

Background: Asked to do a one-shot session by an assistant professor in Economics (my liaison area)

Learning Objective: Find and use open economic datasets

Activities:

1. Economies at a glance (BLS)

2. Finding and downloading unemployment rate data (BLS)

3. Finding occupational wages around the world (NBER)

4. Locating Federal Reserve Economic Data by category and source (FRED)

Link to slides from instruction session

Some sources for open data

• Data Repositories• Government Documents• Local Government Websites• International Organizations

Photo credit: http://www.tlcgis.org/

Photo credit: http://www.worldbank.org

Photo credit: http://www.in.gov/library

Data Repositories

Types of data repositories:

1. Research Repository

2. Domain (subject based)

3. National

4. Institutional

Open Data Applications for Public Libraries

• Library planning and programming– Data driven decision making

• Community engagement– Open Data Day! Photo source: http://fabiusmaximus.com/

Photo source: American Library Association http://fabiusmaximus.com/ Photo source: http://www.aliem.com/

Boise Idaho Case Study: Background

• February 2006 estimated $38 million bond election for three new branch libraries to be opened in 2009

• Proposed plan for three new branches to ensure that most of population lives within three miles of a library

• The University of Idaho Library (Moscow, Idaho) collaborated with public librarians to conduct a GIS study

Photo credit: http://lynx.lili.org/files/lynx/boise-logo.jpg

Boise Idaho Case Study: Data/Methods

• Selected US Census data variables were linked with a service area map of the two proposed branch libraries

• Variables Used– Race – Sex by age – Median household income– Income below poverty– Under five years below poverty– Ages 65+ below poverty– Bachelor’s Degree (highest level obtained, aggregate of male and female)– Master’s Degree (aggregate of male and female master’s, professional, and

doctorate).

• ArcGIS used for data analysis to create tables and maps

Boise Idaho Case Study: Results

Output of the combined spatial/attribute data queries provided visual and statistical picture of demographic characteristics of potential library users in two service areas

Boise Public Library Director found the results of this study helpful in regard to the income and education levels of the two service areas.

Conclusions made in article made regarding race, age, income, and education using publicly available data

Photo credit Karen Hertel, and Nancy Sprague. 2007. “GIS and Census Data: Tools for Library Planning.” Library Hi Tech 25(2): 246–59.

Tools

Quantum GIS (QGIS): Free and open-source geographic information system

GeoLib: Database including location of America’s 16,000 public libraries, population characteristics from U.S. Census and statistics from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES)

Photo source: http://plgdb.freac.fsu.edu/

Photo source: http://www.qgis.org/en/site/

U.S. Census Tools

QuickFacts: Provides frequently requested Census information at national, state, county and city level.

The American FactFinder: Interactive application that provides statistics from: Economic Census, American Community Survey (ACS), 2010 Census and more

Census Explorer: Newest U.S. Census mapping tool using Social Explorer platform. Series of interactive maps based on certain topics (ex: “Young Adults: Then and Now Edition”)

Easy Stats: Quick access to selected statistics collected through the American Community Survey (ACS). Good for answering a pressing question.

Considerations with using Census data

What question are you trying to answer?

What is you geographic unit of analysis?

Are the variables that you’re analyzing from the same survey?

Are you analyzing information from a census or a survey? (2010 Census vs. 2013 ACS)

Photo credit: http://basicblogtips.com/viral-marketing-surveys.html

Photo credit: http://thinkingfutures.net/

International Open Data Day!

“Open Data Day is a gathering of citizens in cities around the world to write applications, liberate data, create visualizations and publish analyses using open public data to show support for and encourage the adoption open data policies by the world's local, regional and national governments”

Photo credit: http://opendataday.org/

Open Data Day Hackathon 2014 at Edmonton Public Library

• Used open-source “Open Data Hackathon How to Guide” for planning

• Speed Data-ing • Reached out to city business representatives (producers

requested of data sets) to participate• Created a wiki to help field ideas and promote the event

International Open Data Day!

• Only 10 events in the United States• Mostly at academic libraries• Things you need

– Space/Computers– Sponsors– Community Support– Food!

Photo credit: http://bluesyemre.com/

Things to take away…

• Data literacy is part of information literacy• There is no shortage of open data to teach or

work with• More organizations, governments and agencies

will make their data available to the public• Demystify all of the data!

Photo credit: https://ccmit.mit.edu/

Works Cited

Borgman, C.L. (2007) Scholarship in the Digital Age : Information, infrastructure, and the Internet. Cambridge, MA. : MIT Press

Dietrich, D, G., J., McNamara, T, P., A., Pollock, R, T., J., & Zijlstra, T. (2012). Open Data Handbook. Open Knowledge Foundation. Retrieved from http://opendatahandbook.org/en/

Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research. (2013) http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public-access-results-federally-funded-research

Strasser, C. 2013. “UNT: Scientific Data Management and Sharing.” http://www.slideshare.net/carlystrasser/unt-scientific-data-management-and-sharing

Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, (2006) American Library Association http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

Shorish, Y. (2015) Data Information Literacy and Undergraduates: A Critical Competency. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 22(1), 97–106. http://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2015.1001246

Julian, R. (2014) Sources and Applications for Open Economic Data. http://www.slideshare.net/Renaine/sources-and-applications-for-open-economic-data

Armbruster, C. & Romary, L., (2009) Comparing Repository Types: Challenges and Barriers for Subject-Based Repositories, Research Repositories, National Repository Systems and Institutional Repositories in Serving Scholarly Communication. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1506905 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1506905

Hertel, K. & Sprague, N. (2007). “GIS and Census Data: Tools for Library Planning.” Library Hi Tech 25(2): 246–59.

Carruthers, A. (2014). Open Data Day Hackathon 2014 at Edmonton Public Library. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library & Information Practice & Research, 9(2), 1–13 https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/viewFile/3121/3400

McAuthur, K, Lainchblury, H, and Horn, D. “Open Data Hackathon How to Guide.” Google Docs https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fBuisDTIiBAz9u2tr7sgv6GdDLOV_aHbafjqHXSkNB0/edit#

Questions/Comments

Renaine Julian – Data Research Librarian, Florida State University Libraries

rjulian@fsu.edu

Data Services @ FSU Libraries: https://www.lib.fsu.edu/dss/data-services

Follow me on Twitter! @Renaino

Photo credit: https://openclipart.org/