PURR Provides a Campus Hub for Research Data Management

PURR screenshot 2013The Purdue University Research Repository (PURR, http://purr.purdue.edu) helps researchers meet the requirements of grant-funding agencies for data management plans by giving Purdue faculty, graduate students and staff with an online hub for collaborating on research and publishing and archiving datasets.

In January 2011, the National Science Foundation began requiring that all grant proposals include two-page plans that describe what data will be generated in the research and how the data will be managed and shared. Other funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, NASA and the National Endowment for the Humanities soon followed suit with requirements of their own.

PURR was jointly developed by the Purdue Libraries, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) to support researchers in meeting these requirements by creating a platform for collaborating on research and publishing and archiving datasets.

Examples of research data include software source code, output from sensors and instruments, interview transcripts, observation logs, spreadsheets, databases, scientific images and video and more.

Purdue faculty, graduate students and staff can create projects on the PURR website, invite others to join their projects and receive a free allocation of storage and tools for helping them collaborate and manage their research data. It also provides boilerplate text that can be pasted into grant proposals as well as tutorials and support for developing effective data management plans.

Since its launch, PURR has been included in over 500 grant proposals that have originated from Purdue.

Published datasets are assigned Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) from DataCite that uniquely identify them and make them more easily tracked and cited. Data are archived for a minimum of ten years, after which time they are managed as a collection of the University's libraries. PURR was designed to implement open standards and best practices such as the ISO 16363 certification of trustworthy digital repositories, for which an audit process is currently underway.

The service is based on the HUBzero™ software, which was also developed at Purdue. It is freely available to the Purdue research community at http://purr.purdue.edu.

 

Information Literacy

Every person has the right to be information literate. The Purdue University Libraries Information Literacy Program builds a foundation for discovery, learning, and engagement across the University and its broader communities. The Information Literacy Program collaboratively develops skills and competencies in learners to identify, find, evaluate and ethically use information, enabling academic success.        

--Information Literacy Mission Statement, Purdue University Libraries

The Information Literacy Mission Statement was developed and adopted by the Libraries faculty in 2010 under the leadership of Dr. Sharon Weiner, W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy, who had recently joined the Libraries faculty. At that time, Libraries faculty considered information literacy to be crucial for student success but the concept of information literacy was not as familiar to other faculty on campus. Information literacy is now widely known at Purdue and a key component of the IMPACT program, Purdue's course redesign initiative, http://www.purdue.edu/impact/ and of the foundational and embedded outcomes in the Core Curriculum. In addition to these campus-wide initiatives, information literacy continues to be taught by Libraries faculty, both in specialized information literacy courses (GS175) and through guest lectures in courses in the academic departments. Libraries faculty have developed online tutorials and guides to resources that can be linked to Blackboard courses and syllabi.

During fall 2012 the Libraries Curriculum Committee partnered with the Provost's Office of Assessment to cosponsor a workshop to help teaching faculty prepare submissions for their courses to meet the information literacy outcome for the Core Curriculum. Clarence Maybee, assistant professor, Libraries, led this effort. Maybee and other Libraries faculty are available to meet with faculty who want to incorporate information literacy into their courses or curricula. For more information about incorporating information literacy into your course, please contact Clarence Maybee, cmaybee@purdue.edu, 49-47603, or your departmental liaison.

 

Campus-wide Review of Purdue's Historical Documents and Records Planned

In 2009 the Purdue University Archives was established with a resolution signed by President France Córdova. The resolution charged the Libraries, Archives and Special Collections with preserving the historical record of Purdue, to ensure that the record of the University’s important decisions, growth, changes and accomplishments remain accessible to meet the needs of both administrators and scholars. To meet its mission, the University Archives will be embarking on a two year project to identify the records created by the University, assess their value for administrative and historical purposes and collaborate with departments in preserving and safeguarding the records that have long-term value.

Lauren WhiteLauren White will serve as Project Archivist for University Records. She has a Master of Science in Information, specializing in Preservation of Information and Archives and Records Management from the University of Michigan. She previously worked as Archives Consultant for Western Michigan University. Beginning in spring 2013 White will begin meeting with faculty and staff across campus to assess records in storage areas in the various departments. As part of her work, she will determine the size and scope of records with historical value currently dispersed across campus, and work with the University Archivist to plan and prioritize the preservation of the records of highest historical and administrative value. Types of records to be assessed include paper files, departmental publications and memoranda, reports, photographs, audio-visual materials and digital files relating to the activities of the department and its employees. A major outcome of this project will be to preserve the important historical records that document the story of Purdue University and its contributions to higher education, while enabling efficient access to the records by faculty, staff and scholars.

White's office is located in Hicks Undergraduate Library, Room G932 and may be reached at white323@purdue.edu or 49-42263.

 

Digital Preservation and Electronic Records Archivist Hired

Carly Dearborn 2013Although digital collections are much easier to access, share and manipulate than print collections they come with their own set of challenges to manage. In particular, digital collections are susceptible to loss, unintentional alteration, or corruption over time due to the rapid obsolescence of hardware, software and file formats. The Libraries is pleased to announce that Carly Dearborn has been hired as Digital Preservation and Electronic Records Archivist to lead the development of digital preservation services within the Libraries. She will be responsible for appraisal, description and preservation of the University's unique digital collections of high research value, such as electronic documents, publications, images and research data. She will collaborate with faculty on innovative ways to preserve the most important digital records produced by their departments, as well as advising faculty on approaches to preserving their digital research and data sets.

Dearborn has a Master of Science in Information Studies, with endorsement in Archives and Records Management, from the University of Texas at Austin. Her bachelor's degree is in History and Political Science from the University of South Dakota, where she was a University Scholar. She has experience working with print, digital, photographic, and audio-visual collections and is a specialist in digital archiving and preservation. Her previous positions included archives work at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the University Of Texas School of Information and the National Park Service.

Dearborn's office is located in Hicks Undergraduate Library, Room G934 and may be reached at cdearbor@purdue.edu or 49-46766.


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Email questions or comments about the Libraries Update: Information for Purdue Faculty to libevent@purdue.edu.

 

Upcoming Events & exhibits

"Jerry L. Ross: An Astronaut's Journey"
Archives and Special Collections Exhibit
January 7-February 22
HSSE 4th Floor
STEW

The Civil War Exhibit
February 20-April 5
Hicks Library

"Women at Work: Celebrating the Legacy of Purdue Women Engineers"
Archives and Special Collections Exhibit
March 4-July 31
HSSE 4th Floor
STEW

Library Scholars Grant Luncheon
April 3
Details to be announced

 

 

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University Library Committee Members

The University Library Committee is part of the University Senate and meets regularly to inform the Purdue Libraries’ strategic support of the University, its faculty, students, and staff.

James Bethel, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering

Laura Bowling, Associate Professor, Agronomy

Barrett Caldwell, Professor, Industrial Engineering

Kari Clase, Associate Professor, Technology, Leadership & Innovation

Anirban DasGupta, Professor, Statistics

Alex Fuller, Undergraduate Student

Kristin L. Hartwick, Director of Financial Affairs Executive Office

Blake Hylton, Graduate Student

Amy Lossie, Assistant Professor, Animal Sciences

James L. Mullins, Dean of Libraries

Abdelfattah Nour, Professor, Basic Medical Science

Senay Purzer, Assistant Professor, Engineering Education

Rajeswari Sundararajan, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology