Member Highlight: Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

Jessica Koos, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University

The most recent Research Data Access & Preservation (RDAP) Summit was held from March 11-13 at the Santa Fe Convention Center in the beautiful city of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Fortunately, the conference took place immediately before quarantining was implemented due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak. Several of the speakers and attendees cancelled their in-person attendance due to the outbreak, however the conference organizers diligently made the in-person presentations available to those attending remotely using Zoom. Several speakers also provided remote presentations.

The keynote speaker on the first day was Dr. Michele Suina, Program Director at the Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center. Dr. Suina is a member of Cochiti Pueblo, and she related the cultural considerations of her people regarding data collection. She also spoke about Indigenous Data Sovereignty and its role in ensuring that indigenous populations have control over their own data.

The keynote speaker on the second day was Dr. Amber Budden, Director for Community Engagement and Outreach at DataONE, which is a large initiative made up of multiple collaborators designed to facilitate the sharing of environmental data. Dr. Budden’s presentation detailed the successes and future goals of DataONE.

The majority of the conference consisted of various panel presentations organized into themes, including Partnerships, Data Visualization, Consortia, and Data Privacy. Of particular interest was a panel presentation from Dr. David Fearon, Senior Data Management Consultant at Johns Hopkins University, entitled “Screening for Human Subject Disclosure Risk During Data Curation and RDM Service Connections.” The presentation described the efforts being undertaken by the university in providing various types of support to researchers in the health sciences in order to facilitate the sharing of health-related data.

Other conference activities included lightning rounds and the RDAP Business Meeting. Additionally, a poster session allowed for discussions among speakers and attendees. Opportunities for networking abounded over delicious conference-provided meals with a distinctly New Mexican flair.

Overall, this summit covered numerous aspects of data management as it relates to libraries and librarians. There was something for everyone, from the novice data management librarian to the data management specialist. I would encourage anyone with an interest in this topic to attend future events.

Jessica Koos at RDAP

If you’re interested in learning more about RDAP and the annual RDAP summit, please visit rdapassociation.org.

Written by Jessica Koos, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University.