 This is our project briefing for the CNI fall 2020 virtual membership meeting Entitled model for centralizing data and bioinformations services at the health sciences and human services library at the University of Maryland Baltimore Hi, I'm John Paul corn. Yay. I'm the bioinformations in the Center for data and bioinformations services at the health sciences and human services library at the University of Maryland Baltimore and My name is Amy Arno, and I am the data services librarian for the health sciences and human services library at the University of Maryland Baltimore Earlier this year. I was talking to mj2e our library director And she mentioned struggling to convey the essence of the great work We were doing in the library in support of data and bioinformation need on campus Our situation was that we lacked centralized resources for data and bioinformation services So why is this a problem? Figured that without a clear and concise way of talking about and capturing the entirety of the work We as individuals and the library does towards data and bioinformation services Resources communication and learning we run the risk of appearing to ourselves and others as a patchwork related to data and bioinformation Not unified not coordinated We ran the risk of creating silos that prevent clear and open communication and cause a duplication of efforts on campus We run to issues for the library director and anyone else talking about the library's data and bioinformatics efforts Folks getting tongue-tied promoting and explaining to external stakeholders are interested parties about our work And also we run the risk of missing out on funding opportunities reserved for centralized units aiming to provide bioinformatics and data support in the library To better understand our situation we define for whom the problem exists and who has a stake in solving the problem We determine the problem exists for our campus community The people we serve and the main reason we come to work who may have trouble knowing what resources exist and how to access them easily Also librarians and professional staff The folks in the trenches interfacing directly with the user Those who provide data and bioinformation services and those who collaborate with those people that are providing data and bioinformation services Also our library administrators who must communicate what the library is doing And other units who provide data services and do not know about potential collaborators We also determine who our stakeholders are meaning who cares whether this problem is resolved or not Those who will ensure we uphold our mission to bring value to our campus community and the scholarly community at large The data services librarian and myself the bioinformationist since we are interfacing with faculty staff and students and our effort solely goes towards operations of the center The associate director for services at the library who supervises the data services librarian and myself and as an integral contributor to the process of refining and sharpening our point and is in the field with a step by step seeing Implementation of our vision Additionally the library director who tirelessly advocates for sustaining and growing the library She's had the vision for the library playing a prominent role in the data and bioinformatics ecosystem Because on multiple campus level initiatives. She's serving and stands to gain a lot from our success now and the future of the library Our library IT staff cats Our library IT staff cats An associate director for cats provide our cyber infrastructure and are directly involved in our work routinely with graphic design and web development And finally the library head of resource development and sharing who leads the data catalog initiative And has been involved in development of our data services providing a measurable insight into delivering data services We also aggregated and defined our experience around the situation and did some research about it also We've been providing data services for several years And our existing relationships with groups and departments across campus providing complimentary services showed us that they are all centers or cores Meaning this is an effective model We already have an existing list of services we provide We already provide training instruction for bioinformatics and data services And there can be a lack of communication between different departments that do similar work So fixing that up would be helpful And there's a difficulty talking about our services There's an uncertainty of who to go to whenever assistance is required as well as users being unsure of who to go to for help Our research we've done was literature searches And we found great examples of successful centers and cores within libraries providing centralized data and bioinformation services Seeing collaboration being forged at the campus level to provide these services We performed an environmental scan of our campus to find out what was going on and classify it As well as perform a needs assessment to directly Inquire from our campus community what their needs for data and bioinformation services work Naturally, we think the solution for this situation is our center for data and bioinformation services In the following slides, we're going to discuss the model for making it happen and what that means for our users and stakeholders Our priorities our mission and number one priority Is a dedication to meeting the evolving information needs of our diverse communities through provision of expertise Resources and services in an environment supportive of the University of Maryland's mission Vision and core values In addition to aligning with the mission our priorities are also data driven With guidance from our stakeholders and users in accord with the themes and goals of the strategic plan for the library We do this in consideration of our available budget available staff time our skillset And other means of leveraging skills to achieve cdabs goals We like to think ourselves to be self-aware in respect to the work we do And as such the value we generate and how we implement things in the center will be based on evolving assumptions and external factors throughout our processes Our assumptions are the evolving beliefs we have about the center The people involved and the way we think that the center is going to work External factors on the other hand are aspects of the environment in which the center exists that can influence the center's success Our current assumptions are that there is a need for centralized resources That people have a hard time finding out about services and we have a hard time describing what we do That there is a need to train people on open science skills Also that the library is the natural entity to be the data hub on campus since it's a centralized institution that serves all of our schools Also that members of other departments will have the time to contribute to the center We assume also that the work we are proposing to do is not being replicated elsewhere on campus And finally that we have appropriate hardware software and technical skills to meet the evolving demands of our users Our external factors are Our external factors are Whether the campus community will embrace us as valid contributors to the data enterprise That the ever-changing tech environment and its effect on relevance of our programming And how current policy and economic concerns affect the availability of resources for the program After thinking through our situation priorities and assumptions Jean-Paul and I took stock of the resources we had available in terms of time people funding technology infrastructure partnerships and experience From this we determined that we do have the ingredients necessary to form a center And so the center for data and bio information services is largely about how we package and promote these ingredients The center will have two full-time staff members and Jean-Paul and myself And several other library staff and faculty members will contribute as part of their regular duties Either with some aspect of cdab's programming or in a more advisory capacity Because most of the work for the center is being done as part of our regular job duties We will not at this time require much funding beyond our normal salaries Two exceptions to this will be the acceptance of vouchers for a new visualization service Which will help provide some additional professional development funds And we may also want to look into grant funding for upgrades to our technology We do have numerous technological resources that we can leverage for this service Including those specific to the library like the high performance computer The library website and for when we're back in our physical space our classrooms We have access to campus-wide services like red cap as well We have a number of partnerships we can build on including centers and personnel within umb and those beyond We can learn from their experiences and they can provide us with opportunities for collaboration Finally, we can build on the experiences We have already developed from building data and bio information services And we can continue to research this sort of programming elsewhere The outputs from these resources form our core pillars learning services resources and communication We provide instruction through multiple modalities and offer personal in-depth assistance for a range of data needs We have beneficial resources like a high performance computer and the data catalog Which lists data sets created or used by umb researchers In the future we hope to offer additional services like a visualization lab and wall It is also important that we communicate about the center activities through on-campus promotion efforts and professional activities We see opportunities here for further engagement by organizing interest groups and open office hours around things like research data management And the r programming language Assessment is a thread that runs through all of these pillars And is an ongoing and integral part of our data driven priorities We will leverage our existing assessment strategies like workshop evaluations And add new methods for assessment that will help us determine our impact on our community and make sure that we are meeting their needs As we mentioned the center is not going to be a physical space But it will have a virtual presence in the form of a web portal on the main library webpage That will be key to clarifying what the center is and how all the pieces fit together We have started to work with a library web developer on how we can bring together our existing resources Like the lib guides on various data and bio information topics the data catalog and our workshops and tutorials Let's look at some scenarios that will illustrate how the center for data and bio information services And its web portal will result in a better experience for our users In the first scenario imagine a researcher who knows they are supposed to share their data Maybe they've heard about our data catalog But are not sure if they can store data there And they are struggling with who to contact because the research data management information is in a different place than data catalog information In another scenario there might be a participant in one of our workshops who wants to find the slides or other material Currently there is no place on the library website for this material to live And so participants would need to email the instructor and ask them to send the slides Finally consider a researcher who works with large data sets and needs to understand options for using computing resources on campus Currently they may not realize that the library can help them in this regard With the center in place the users described on the last slide Could come to the center's web portal and easily find options for services along the data life cycle They would have access to staff bios and understand who is responsible for various services So for the faculty member looking to share data They will now easily be able to find information comparing different repositories in a guide Or they could request a consultation to help them choose a repository Understand how to prepare their data for sharing and also start the process of getting a record created for their shared data in the data catalog The workshop participant will find a space where current and past workshop materials are located And this will be easily accessed from the future workshop calendar Finally the researcher interested in working with a large data set Will be able to easily find information about the library's high performance computer Including how to access it and what its uses and limitations are If they need computing resources beyond what we offer at the library They will be able to find information about other campus resources So our portal will not only serve as a space for describing and accessing our own services and resources But it will also act as a hub connecting to our partners across campus who also offer data and bio information related services Now that we have had a chance to consider some scenarios of how we will be delivering value to our users Let's step back and see how soon we can realize the value being generated and potential caveats In the short term we envision that our campus community can quickly access and navigate our library's data and bio information services Workshop and webinar attendees coming away from instruction will have achieved learning goals and be able to reproduce what they've learned There's an opportunity of piecewise attainment of open science skills through participation and use of services and resources we offer There's also a possibility of not keeping up with demand and quality of service declining We're sure people will have a place to go to learn about data and bio information topics because our information pages Tutorials workshops and open office hours and user groups will be available to the whole umb community We anticipate increased engagement as well sharing and describing umb researchers data sets In the midterm we anticipate data service providers from the umb campus community having improved communication with each other However, there could be some challenges connecting and fostering community solidarity nonetheless related to territory disputes technology hurdles or some potential redundancy of services And overall we'll anticipate enhanced computing for campus users geared to work with big data and data enclaves In the long term we think that the center will help establish the health sciences and human services library as a model for how a health science institution can provide data and bio information services and teach and promote open science skills We hope that through our efforts the data catalog will have a larger presence on campus And that it will become part of nearly all researchers routines to list their data in the catalog Over time the center for data and bio information services will become a mature entity that is self sustaining And able to adapt easily to the needs of our community as technology and data practices change Over the next six months our plan will be to develop our web portal in addition to that We plan to bring together promotional materials To advertise and engage with our campus community users We will assemble our curriculum for attaining open science skills through our workshops We'll have ongoing advisory meetings to review the progress of our center's development and launch And of course an ongoing assessment and research as to how we're doing with our launch This concludes our project update for the c&i fall 2020 virtual membership meeting We hope you have found it informative Please feel free to contact Amy Yarnel or John Paul Cornea at the center for data and bio information services at the health sciences and human services library of the university of maryland baltour at the email address data at hshsl.u maryland.edu Best wishes