UH Librarian Chairs TDL Dataverse Group
The TDL Dataverse Implementation Working Group will implement Dataverse to establish a statewide repository for storing and providing access to research data.
Santi Thompson, head of Digital Repository Services at the University of Houston Libraries, was recently selected as chair of the Texas Digital Library (TDL) Dataverse Implementation Working Group, a new consortial team whose charge is to pilot test, assess, and launch a repository for research data archiving and management.
The group was formed at the recommendation of the TDL Data Management Working Group, who investigated solutions for improving access and reuse of research data in response to the 2013 mandate from the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, which calls for researchers to make the results of federally funded research publicly accessible.
The Data Management Working Group chose Dataverse as the best facilitator of the discovery of research data and its associated metadata. Dataverse is a free and open source software platform for publishing, citing and preserving research data, developed by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University.
The Dataverse Implementation Working Group will implement Dataverse to establish a statewide repository for storing and providing access to research data. The group’s tasks are to provide recommendations on sustainable funding models; technical and metadata configuration; outreach, workflows and training programs; and policy and governance.
“Once implemented, Dataverse will offer researchers throughout Texas a dedicated space to archive their research and to share it with their colleagues and the broader public,” Thompson said. “It will also establish the foundation for helping researchers fulfill important mandates from grant funding agencies as well as promote their unique research in new and exciting ways.”
The TDL is a consortium of higher education institutions in Texas that provides shared services in support of research and teaching. It began in 2005 as a partnership between four of the state’s largest Association of Research Libraries (ARL) universities: Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, and the University of Texas at Austin. It has extended membership in the consortium to any of the state’s institutions of higher learning and now represents large and small institutions from every region of the state.