UC Libraries Forum 2021: Leading with Innovation, Stronger through Collaboration

Across the disciplines, from physical sciences to social sciences to digital humanities, researchers are pursuing new and innovative research with big data and data science methodologies. In response, libraries and other campus units have begun to implement instruction, consultation, and curation services to support researchers in planning, managing, sharing, and publishing their data. However, many libraries have not yet fully assessed the needs of big data researchers, much less developed services specifically tailored for researchers producing and working with big data. In order to provide a better understanding of the state of the big data research landscape in higher education, the Ithaka S+R Project on “Supporting Big Data Research” brought together twenty-one U.S. institutions to conduct and analyze interviews with big data researchers on their campuses. Teams at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego each assembled rosters of interviewees across domains and ranks to examine practices, challenges, and trends related to data collection, data analysis, research communication, and training. Themes emerged around such issues as data storage, computing infrastructure, data and code sharing, openness, collaboration, and training needs. UCB and UCSD team members will present their common findings, important differences between the two campuses, and potential opportunities for cross-campus collaboration.