This past week, the University of Michigan Library was pleased to host the second annual Midwest Data Librarian Symposium (MDLS). The goal of the symposium was to offer librarians who work with research data in the midwest a chance to network and discuss issues in their fields. MDLS was attended by 60 librarians; while most were from the midwest, others came from as far as Oklahoma and Florida to attend.
Every session was interactive and hands-on in some way. The keynote was given by Melissa Cragin, the Executive Director of the Midwest Big Data Hub. Other topics included developing personas for those producing and using data, data cleanup and a crash-course in R, lightning talks, incorporating data information literacy into teaching, and educational skills sharing in order to create more active learning opportunities around data in the classroom.
Mark your calendars! MDLS 2017 will be hosted at Purdue University on October 9-10, 2017.
Many thanks to the program committee:
Katherine Akers (Wayne State University)
Jamene Brooks-Kiefer (University of Kansas)
Scott Martin (University of Michigan)
Hailey Mooney (University of Michigan)
Amy Neeser (University of Michigan)
Megan O’Donnell (Iowa State University)
Megan Sapp-Nelson (Purdue University)
Elizabeth Wickes (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)