This webinar will introduce participants to the concept of a “data community,” a fluid and informal network of researchers who share and reuse a certain type of data across institutional boundaries. The health sciences have a long tradition of building data communities, and effective data sharing is now more important than ever as researchers race to combat COVID-19. Drawing on Ithaka S+R research, this webinar will explore what data communities are, why they matter, and how health science librarians can best support them.

The webinar will run for 1 hour 30 minutes. The first hour will be an interactive presentation on data communities in the context of health science research. In the final half hour, participants will have the option to join one of two breakout rooms to engage in a focused discussion of the practical implications of data communities for their work. The breakout room topics will be:

OUTREACH: How can health science librarians identify which data communities researchers on their campuses belong to (or could belong to)?

SUPPORT: How can health science librarians practically support cross-institutional data communities?

About the Presenters:

Danielle Cooper, Manager, Collaborations and Research, Ithaka S+R

Danielle Cooper is the manager of collaborations and research at Ithaka S+R, where she oversees a team exploring how information practices are evolving in higher education and cultural organizations. Her team specializes in creating large-scale cohort-based projects and working with underrepresented and under-resourced academic communities, including Indigenous Studies scholars, community colleges, and currently incarcerated learners. She is a passionate applied researcher and has trained hundreds of librarians to collaborate on Ithaka S+R projects.

Prior to joining Ithaka S+R Danielle worked as a librarian at Ryerson University and George Brown College while pursuing her doctoral studies at York University. Her dissertation is entitled “Personal Touches, Public Legacies: An Ethnography of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Libraries and Archives.”

Rebecca Springer, Analyst, Ithaka S+R

Rebecca Springer is a qualitative analyst with Ithaka S+R’s Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums program, where she draws on her research and teaching experience to develop and communicate scholar-centric insights into information technologies. She is particularly focused on analyzing findings from Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services and Teaching Support Services programs. Prior to joining Ithaka S+R, Rebecca was an adjunct lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford, where she taught medieval history and historical methods. She has also worked at Yale’s Beinecke Library and the National Archives in Seattle. Rebecca holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a doctoral degree from the University of Oxford, all in history. Her dissertation developed a new conceptual framework for analyzing the religious experiences of medieval peasants.

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