Open Data: Academia and Beyond

About This Session

The Open Data Button Demo: Requesting data and making progress with a push of a button

Chealsye Bowley and Sarah Melton

The Open Data Button beta is a new tool to help people find the data behind papers and request the release of new data. When a user makes a data request the app will contact the author and invite them to make their research data openly available through the Open Science Framework. This presentation will demo the Open Data Button beta and facilitate an open discussion focused on how the tool can support open research advocacy, and potential collaboration between the Open Data Button and libraries.

 

GIS Trends and Open Access

Douglas Burns and Allyson Rodriguez

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and data are historically not known for being Open Access friendly. Steep licensing fees for the casual user prohibit general access to Esri software. Additionally, high quality data is often put behind paywalls that only major organizations can reasonably afford. Open source software, such as QGIS, are available and have improved significantly in the last few years, but still only make up a small percentage of the market share for GIS software. In response to other disciplines exploring or embracing Open Access, GIS as a field has begun to embrace greater access, though the relationship is complex because GIS has substantial integration in industries outside of academia and the public sector. This presentation seeks to explore Open Access initiatives relevant to GIS, discuss considerations from the perspective of a GIS user and highlight opportunities and challenges.

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Moderator

photo of Daniel Alemneh

Daniel Alemneh

  • Supervisor, Digital Curation Unit

Dr. Daniel Gelaw Alemneh is Digital Curation Coordinator for the Digital Libraries Division and an Adjunct Professor in the College of Information, University of North Texas. Dr.

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Presenters

Chealsye Bowley photo

Chealsye Bowley

  • Scholarly Communication Librarian at Texas Woman's University

Chealsye Bowley is the Scholarly Communication Librarian at Texas Woman's University where she works with the campus community to increase understanding of Open Access and author's rights, and advocate for sustainable publishing models. Her own research is within sociology of science and focuses on the publishing practices and identities of academic scientists.

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Sarah Melton

  • PhD Candidate in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts and Digital Projects Coordinator at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship

Sarah Melton is a PhD Candidate in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts and the Digital Projects Coordinator at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. Her research examines public histories of South African apartheid resistance and the U.S. civil rights movement.

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Douglas Burns photo

Douglas Burns

  • GIS Librarian, University of North Texas

Douglas Burns is the GIS Librarian at the University of North Texas. In this role, he provides reference and technical support to students and faculty. One current project is getting a GIS Data Repository up and running at UNT. He is also actively engaged in community outreach programs in Denton to support nonprofit services using GIS.

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Allyson Rodriguez

  • Strategic Collections Librarian at the University of North Texas

Allyson Rodriguez is the Strategic Collections Librarian at the University of North Texas where she works as part of the Collection Development Department. Her focus is on conceptualizing, creating, and maintaining open-access and born-digital resources to support the university’s curriculum, faculty, and staff.

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