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It takes a strong data science community and many stakeholders to make disparate types of data work so that you and I can continue to explore and learn. Being proactive by including diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies and practices, along with evaluating liaison/outreach roles and established programs and tools, will go a long way in strengthening the library, its staff and services, and the institution. Fighting for the “food” you need to grow the profession and data services is key to the future of the RDM library community.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the usability of the Texas Data Repository (TDR) for the data depositors who are unfamiliar with its interface and use the results to improve user experience.
Methods: This mixed-method research study collected qualitative and quantitative data through a pre-survey, a task-oriented usability test with a think-aloud protocol, and an exit questionnaire. Analysis of the quantitative (i.e., descriptive statistics) and qualitative data (e.g., content analysis of the thinking-aloud protocols) were employed to examine the TDR’s usability for first-time data depositors at Texas A&M University.
Results: While the study revealed that the users were generally satisfied with their experience, the data suggest that a majority of the participants had difficulty understanding the difference between a dataverse collection and dataset, and often found adding or editing metadata overwhelming. The platform’s tiered model for metadata description is core to its function, but many participants did not have an accurate mental model of the platform, which left them scrolling up and down the page or jumping back and forth between different tabs and pages to perform a single task. Based on the results, the authors made some recommendations.
Conclusions: While this paper relies heavily on the context of the Harvard Dataverse repository platform, the authors posit that any self-deposit model, regardless of platform, could benefit from these recommendations. We noticed that completing various metadata fields in the TDR required participants to pivot their mindset from a data creator to that of a data curator. Moreover, the methods used to investigate the usability of the repository can be used to develop additional studies in a variety of repository and service model contexts.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands (TU Delft) stopped its activities on campus until autumn 2021 and moved all teaching activities to an online setting. This article describes the challenges and lessons learned from successfully moving basic programming workshops, Software Carpentry workshops, online. The article details the local TU Delft context, the online workshop tools that were employed, and the roles that the organising team played to organise and run these online workshops. To successfully adapt to the online context, it was important to adjust the original planning and programme for the Carpentry workshops. General challenges of online workshops and solutions that worked for the TU Delft team are also shared. Through iteratively developing the online workshops over the past year, the team has enhanced both learners’ and organisers’ experience. The lessons learned will continue to be valuable when the workshops are transitioned back to a physical setting when COVID-19 protective measures are lifted.
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