Data in the Time of COVID-19: How Data Library Professionals Helped Combat the Pandemic

Abstract

As the world struggled to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers worked around the clock to understand what was going on, medically, socially, and economically. At the same time, usual research processes were disrupted: campuses were closed and normal government data collection and dissemination went haywire. Data professionals in academic libraries sprang into action to help. They shared resources, developed workshops, helped find alternative methods of carrying out research, and found ways of coping with the influx of COVID-related data. Social crises are fought on the front lines by medical professionals and service providers, but they are also fought with research, with information, with data. Libraries are at the nexus of information and communication and library professionals were able to play an important supporting role in helping researchers combat the effects of the pandemic.

To protect and to serve: developing a road map for research data management services

“…They shared resources, developed workshops, helped find alternative methods of carrying out research, and found ways of coping with the influx of Covid-related data.' 9 Generally speaking, RDM is supported by digital infrastructures of varying sophistication, from standard hard drives to integrated cloud solutions. 10 The FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) data principles have been increasingly acting as a useful focal point to assess the maturity of research data infrastructures and have been recently described as a tool to help build campus infrastructure and change culture.…”