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Daily Archives: February 26, 2017

Curating Research Data: Practical Strategies for Your Digital Repository

ALA [Note the links in this posting are to PDF versions of two books] – “Data are becoming the proverbial coin of the digital realm: a research commodity that might purchase reputation credit in a disciplinary culture of data sharing, or buy transparency when faced with funding agency mandates or publisher scrutiny. Unlike most monetary systems, however, digital data can flow in all too great an abundance. Not only does this currency actually “grow” on trees, but it comes from animals, books, thoughts, and each of us! And that is what makes data curation so essential. The abundance of digital research data challenges library and information science professionals to harness this flow of information streaming from research discovery and scholarly pursuit and preserve the unique evidence for future use. In two volumes—Practical Strategies for Your Digital Repository and A Handbook of Current PracticeCurating Research Data presents those tasked with long-term stewardship of digital research data a blueprint for how to curate those data for eventual reuse. Volume One explores the concepts of research data and the types and drivers for establishing digital data repositories. Volume Two guides you across the data lifecycle through the practical strategies and techniques for curating research data in a digital repository setting. Data curators, archivists, research data management specialists, subject librarians, institutional repository managers, and digital library staff will benefit from these current and practical approaches to data curation.”

Many ‘password challenged’ internet users don’t take steps that could protect their data

“In today’s digitally connected world, where accessing medical records, ordering groceries and paying taxes can all be done online, many internet users find it daunting to keep up with all the various passwords associated with their online accounts. One consequence is that a significant minority of users settle for less secure passwords they can more… Continue Reading

40 Largest U.S. Cities Get a Health Rating

“Healthy city living is about more than eliminating food deserts and boosting access to healthcare. It also means the ability to safely ride your bike down the street, breathe clean air and not have to choose between paying the rent or buying dinner. A two-year analysis from Maryland-based de Beaumont Foundation’s CityHealth project sized up… Continue Reading

The Religious Literacy Project

Harvard University – “The Religious Literacy Project is dedicated to enhancing and promoting the public understanding of religion.  It is directed by Diane L. Moore, and enables Harvard Divinity School to continue its nearly four decades of leadership in religious studies and education in the United States. Read more.” Continue Reading

The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration

National Academies Press: “More than 40 million people living in the United States were born in other countries, and almost an equal number have at least one foreign-born parent. Together, the first generation (foreign-born) and second generation (children of the foreign-born) comprise almost one in four Americans. It comes as little surprise, then, that many… Continue Reading

Understanding the Economic Impact of the H-1B Program on the U.S.

Understanding the Economic Impact of the H-1B Program on the U.S. – John Bound, Gaurav Khanna, Nicolas Morales – NBER Working Paper No. 23153. Issued in February 2017. “Over the 1990s, the share of foreigners entering the US high-skill workforce grew rapidly. This migration potentially had a significant effect on US workers, consumers and firms.… Continue Reading

2016 – Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ESCRs) and the internet

“The 47 country reports gathered here illustrate the link between the internet and economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). Some of the topics will be familiar to information and communications technology for development (ICT4D) activists: the right to health, education and culture; the socioeconomic empowerment of women using the internet; the inclusion of rural and indigenous… Continue Reading

Just HOW EARLY is spring arriving in your neighborhood? Find out

USGS: “Get your flip-flops and shorts out because spring is arriving very early this year . . . at least 2-3 weeks early across almost the entire Southeast, from San Antonio to Atlanta to Washington, D.C.  This unusually early spring is likely to keep rolling north, already bringing surprising signs of spring to portions of the central Midwest… Continue Reading

Create and share 3D images from the stereograph collections of NYPL

“Create and share 3D images from the stereograph collections of The New York Public Library (and others).” “NYPL Labs is proud to bring you the Stereogranimator, a tool for transforming historical stereographs from The New York Public Library and other participating organizations into shareable 3D web formats. This site is all about your participation, so… Continue Reading

10 questions and answers about America’s “Big Government”

Via Brookings – commentary by John DiIulio of the University of Pennsylvania, who ran George W. Bush’s first faith-based office: “The ongoing debate over the Trump administration’s plan to freeze federal hiring has thus far involved arguments and “alternative facts” from those on both sides of the question. This obscures certain hard truths about America’s… Continue Reading