Lisa R Johnston

Persistent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/92081

As Data Management & Curation Lead and co-director of the University Digital Conservancy I coordinate the library's efforts around digital scholarship and research data management, access, and archiving. Prior to this I served as library liaison to the Physics, Astronomy, and Geology departments (2007-2011). My research areas of focus are scientific data curation, citation analysis, information-seeking behavior and web development of user-centered tools to access information.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 80

Implementing Research Cyberinfrastructure for the 21st Century
(University of Minnesota, 2009) Anderson, Tracy; Gjerdinge, Craig; Herrman, Bryan; Himes, Katherine; Johnston, Lisa R
As a result of innovative partnerships between the Office of Information Technology, collegiate units, and other Central units, outstanding technological support systems for administrative and academic needs have been developed to serve faculty, staff and students. Central and local IT support staffs maintain servers and desktop computers to ensure availability and security of information technology tools and resources. The University’s Digital Media Center, along with academic technology support staffs in local units, provides a variety of services to instructors and students using technology in teaching and learning. . Dramatic advances in information technology make way for exciting new opportunities for research as well. New technologies allow projects to span disciplines and institutions, enabling researchers to seek new answers to critical questions in ways that were impossible just years or even months ago. Indeed, research computing is a top priority for leading universities and research institutions around the globe; furthermore, cyberinfrastructure is seen as a key factor in securing research funding and attracting and retaining top faculty and students. The expanded research agendas in many disciplines are now outpacing the computing resources available to individual researchers, departments, or even institutions. Enabling this research requires large-scale investments in high-performance computing, storage and networking, as well as the development of cyberinfrastructure to integrate these components into a meaningful whole. Cyberinfrastructure includes the instruments, sensors, high performance computational systems, massive storage systems, data resources, and visualization facilities, tied together by high speed networks and made to work together by advanced software to accomplish goals that would not be possible by any single information technology system. It also includes the people, processes, training, security, policies, and capabilities to sustain the systems and networks over time. Implementing cyberinfrastructure requires a high level of coordination and collaboration between researchers and an information technology workforce with expertise in scientific computing.
MapHappy: A User-Centered Interface to Library Map Collections Via a Google Maps “Mashup”
(Journal of Map And Geography Libraries, 2009-07-01) Johnston, Lisa R; Jensen, Kristi L.
Providing users with the best possible access to the unique cartographic materials found in libraries has been a constant challenge formap librarians. In a Web 2.0 world, existing mapping APIs make it possible to extend the library OPAC past the text-based search and enable users to locate maps using a familiar interface, such as Google Maps. This article describes how librarians at the University of Minnesota developed MapHappy, a “mashup” of their existing map MARC records into a geospatial Web application providing unique access to the print maps in their collections. As expected, this project raised many questions and produced a new set of challenges and opportunities; two such problems, the issue of missing or faulty map coordinates and aligning the interface design with user expectations, are discussed. And while still in beta, a variety of future plans are considered for further development and improvement of MapHappy. This project demonstrates that the representation of library records in a geospatial format provides a more intuitive and streamlined method of identifying maps and makes accessible a wide range of data previously meaningless or invisible to users.
HOW DEEP ARE GEOSCIENTISTS WILLING TO DIG? A CITATION ANALYSIS ADDRESSING THE CHANGING INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOR IN THE DIGITAL AGE
(2009-10) Johnston, Lisa R
To better understand the information-seeking behavior of geoscientists due to ever-changing research habits, an exhaustive citation analysis was performed on a local population of geology dissertations from a large academic research university spanning the years 1888-2008 . Past studies have shown that literature-use in the geosciences declines more slowly than in other scientific disciplines, therefore geology dissertations present an interesting litmus test on how changing information-seeking behavior can affect the obsolescence of scientific literature over time. This diasynchronous review analyzes citation patterns of dissertations by comparing the average citation age for each year and normalizing this data with the earliest citation year (potential) to establish an "average citation depth" for the last 120 years of the university's geoscience PhD graduates. The results indicate that citations have become increasingly younger suggesting that information-seeking behavior has shifted in the last 10 years. These shifts are discussed in terms of potentially disruptive events including the physical location change of the geosciences library, the increased reliance on electronic bibliographic databases, and the role of individual dissertation advisors as affecting the average citation depth of dissertations.
'Creating a Data Management Plan' and Other Training Opportunities in the Library
(2010-12-21) Johnston, Lisa R; Lafferty, Meghan
Researchers in large academic institutions have multiple barriers to identifying available campus tools and resources for managing their research data. The recently announced National Science Foundation (NSF) data management plan requirement for all new grant applications is a prime opportunity to address those difficulties. The University of Minnesota Libraries has been developing educational and outreach programs to support researchers throughout the data life-cycle.
Reimagining the institutional repository as an open data archive
(7th International Digital Curation Conference, 2011-12) Johnston, Lisa R
Institutional repositories (IR) have sprung up in academic institutions over the last decade to provide archival storage and dissemination services for locally-authored digital scholarship, primarily in the form of the traditional peer-reviewed article. However the implementation of IR’s has not rapidly changed the landscape of scholarly communication as expected (1) and, without institutional deposit mandates, many remain underused for their primary purpose. Today, a shift is occurring in academia that has signaled an increased need for the stewardship of digital research data, for example, the expectation by federal funding agencies that researchers share their data and plan for preservation and long-term access. The IR provides academic libraries a ready opportunity to assist researchers with digital data preservation using their established repository services, particularly where national and disciplinary data centers are not available. At the University of Minnesota, our IR is undergoing a replatforming shift from DSpace to Fedora software. This poster will describe the policy decisions, user-needs assessments, and technical infrastructure plans for reimagining the IR to meet data archiving needs across campus.
Tech Expo: A Model for Emerging Technology Education for Library Staff
(Journal of Library Innovation, 2012) Johnston, Lisa R; Spicer, Scott
Emerging technologies, such as personal information management tools like Zotero, productivity software like Google Documents, and web-based API's and mashups are important resources for library staff development and productivity. To keep up with rap-id technological change, the University of Minnesota Libraries developed a staff educa-tion program on emerging technologies. Begun in 2009, the fun and interactive program called Tech Expo has been a success. This paper describes our approach and lessons learned. In recent years, emerging technologies and open source software have proliferated in higher education. In response to technological change at the University of Minnesota (UMN), the Libraries created a Technology Librarian position in 2006 with a focus on emerging technologies. However, it became clear that the growing need for training was not the job of a single librarian, but must be augmented with an emerging technologies program dedicated to staff education. (This is especially true at a large research institu-tion like UMN, with a staff of more than 300.) This article describes the creation and im-plementation of such a program in 2009.
Developing E-science and Research Services and Support at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries
(Journal of Library Administration, 2012) Johnson, Layne M.; Butler, John; Johnston, Lisa R
This paper describes the development and implementation of e-science and research support services in the Health Sciences Libraries (HSL) within the Academic Health Center (AHC) at the University of Minnesota (UMN). A review of the broader e-science initiatives within the UMN demonstrates the needs and opportunities that the University Libraries face while building knowledge, skills, and capacity to support e-research. These experiences are being used by the University Libraries administration and HSL to apply support for the growing needs of researchers in the health sciences. Several research areas that would benefit from enhanced e-science support are described. Plans to address the growing e-research needs of health sciences researchers are also discussed.
OPEN ACCESS GEOLOGY: USING THE INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY TO HOST STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PUBLICATIONS
(Geoscience Information Society, 2012) Johnston, Lisa R; Thorleifson, Harvey
The Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS) hosts information systems containing data sets that are valuable historic and scientific resources for the state. Several options are being pursued to curate, preserve, describe, and disseminate these data to broader audiences, including web services, national data archives, and institutional repositories. One of the challenges has been to find a means to make available scanned versions of geological survey publications. Geoscience research literature is increasingly published electronically and made digitally available for immediate online access. For state geological survey publications, a library-run institutional repository (IR) can be an excellent solution to host digitized and born-digital content. In the past few years, MGS has scanned all of its publications published since 1872 through a number of library and state preservation grants. The comprehensive project included over 40,000 pages of reports, guidebooks, and bulletins, and over 600 maps, along with GIS data files from recent decades. This talk will describe how the MGS content was archived in the university’s institutional repository and the issues and challenges we faced such as format decisions, workflow issues, and modes of user access.
First Year of "Creating a Data Management Plan": A New Workshop Offered by the University of Minnesota Libraries.
(2012-04-25) Petsan, Beth; Lafferty, Meghan; Johnston, Lisa R
This poster was presented at the USAIN (United States Agricultural Information Network) 2012 Conference in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (April 29-May 2, 2012). The topic is a University of Minnesota Libraries' workshop called "Creating a Data Management Plan for your Grant Application."
University Digital Conservancy: A Platform to Publish, Share, and Preserve the University's Scholarship
(University of Minnesota, 2012-06) Johnston, Lisa R; Moore, Erik A.; Petsan, Beth
The University Digital Conservancy (UDC) is a web-based tool that provides free, worldwide access to research and scholarship contributed by faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota, including research papers, pre-prints, presentations and research data - often meeting funding open access mandates (ie. NIH, NSF). It is also a showcase for original student works -- such as dissertations, masters and professional papers, and honors theses -- increasing visibility to our teaching and learning outputs. Finally, the UDC is an institutional repository (IR) built to preserve digital university assets that have traditionally gone to the University Archives, such as department newsletters and administrative reports. The UDC software provides searchable, full-text access to deposited work that will rank highly in web search engines (like Google) and also ensures long-term access to content with permanent urls (no more broken links). This library-run repository began in 2007 and now contains over 23,000 digital works that have been downloaded over 1.5 million times. (Download stats as of May 1, 2012.)
Training Researchers on Data Management: A Scalable, Cross-Disciplinary Approach
(Journal of eScience Librarianship, 2012-08) Johnston, Lisa R; Lafferty, Meghan; Petsan, Beth
This article describes the curriculum, implementation, and results of the research data management training offered by the University of Minnesota (UMN) Libraries. The UMN Libraries have offered the workshop titled, “Creating a Data Management Plan for Your Grant Application,” to more than 300 researchers and faculty since late 2010. With University partnerships, this training satisfies the requirement for the continuing education component to maintain PI eligibility. Based on workshop feedback, the authors conclude that academic libraries can provide support to researchers with federal mandates to share their research data by providing timely, discussion-based training and resources on how to create a data management plan. The unanticipated benefits for library staff education and professional development on this topic are explored.
Data Management Skills Needed by Structural Engineering Students: A Case Study at the University of Minnesota
(Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 2013) Johnston, Lisa R; Jeffryes, Jon
The current era of e-science and big data calls upon researchers to ensure the security and management of their research data. In this case study researchers from the University of Minnesota Libraries interviewed a graduate student research team and faculty advisor to provide an understanding of the educational gaps that need to be filled in order to graduate data-savvy engineers. This paper presents the needed data management skills with thoughts on how the engineering discipline and academic research libraries might partner on a shared training solution.
An E-Learning Approach to Data Information Literacy Education
(ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, 2013) Jeffryes, Jon; Johnston, Lisa R
This paper presents the University of Minnesota Libraries’ contributions to the ongoing Data Information Literacy project, an IMLS-funded project to educate the next generation of escientists through developing a library-run curriculum. Our project team at the University of Minnesota interviewed graduate students in Civil Engineering to determine their needs in data management and curation. We found many skill areas that were missing or needed support in the graduate program and proposed a list of learning outcomes that might be addressed through library training efforts. This paper will focus on our resulting approach to providing Data Information Literacy (DIL) instruction utilizing Google tools (Sites, Drive, YouTube) to present a self-paced, interactive online course. The paper also provides an examination of our assessment methodology and discusses our findings after a pilot launch with Civil Engineering graduate students in Fall 2012.
Developing a Data Curation Service: Step #1: Work With What You’ve Got
(Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2014) Johnston, Lisa R
A Workflow Model for Curating Research Data in the University of Minnesota Libraries: Report from the 2013 Data Curation Pilot
(University Digital of Minnesota Conservancy, 2014-01-19) Johnston, Lisa R
The 2013 Data Curation Project set out to test and expand the University Libraries’ programmatic and technical capacities to support research data management needs on campus by establishing a fixed-term data curation pilot. This pilot utilized our current suite of services and expertise in the University with the objective of developing a model workflow for curating a variety of types of research data in the Libraries. Specifically, in eight months, this project resulted in 1) a data curation workflow utilizing existing university resources; 2) five pilot research datasets that were solicited, selected, and curated for discovery and reuse in the libraries’ digital repository, the University Digital Conservancy, at the persistent URL, http://purl.umn.edu/160292; and 3) and a summary report describing the successes and shortcomings of this approach. This report summarizes the steps taken to curate the datasets in the pilot, faculty needs and reactions to the result, and in addition to the specific dataset treatments, an overall data curation workflow is presented that outlines the steps needed for any dataset. A discussion of this process provides some useful lessons learned. As a result of this project, the University Libraries now hold a more realistic sense of the overall capacities and expertise needed to develop a sustainable data curation service model. Additionally, the Libraries are better prepared to fine-tune and implement selected recommendations from previous assessments and committee reports.
Steal this idea: A library instructors’ guide to educating students in data management skills
(College & Research Libraries News, 2014-09) Johnston, Lisa R; Jeffryes, Jon
Academic librarians are increasingly called on to offer training and educational programming on wide-ranging topics to our campus affiliates from information literacy, authors’ rights, emerging publishing models, and the latest tools to manage citations and personal information. Recent funding requirements to increase access to the digital data resulting from federally funded research have highlighted an additional area of need for better data management skills and best practices for data sharing. This shift prompted the Data Information Literacy project, an IMLS-funded project bringing together librarians and researchers from Purdue University, Cornell University, University of Oregon, and University of Minnesota (UMN) to better understand and address the data management skills needed by students on our respective campuses. This article provides a big-picture overview of the work conducted by UMN to meet the data literacy needs of our graduate students. We’ve adapted our instructional approach to data management over the years. We started with an online, self-paced course4 in 2012 and then, based on student need and feedback, transformed the training into a comprehensive, multidisciplinary “flipped classroom” five-session workshop series. After we show you what we’ve done, we’ll tell you how you can take the content we’ve created and re-use, adapt, and repurpose it for your own students.
Partnerships in a Data Management Village: Exploring how research and library services can work together
(2015) Hofelich Mohr, Alicia; Lindsay, Thomas; Johnston, Lisa R
Providing data management services is a task that takes a village; a distributed model of support, involving collaboration among diverse institutional offices, is needed to do it well. Researchers especially benefit when specialized institutional support offices are aware of other relevant providers and the impact their services have on the management of data across the research life cycle. However, once a village is assembled, how do we work with members to be committed collaborators, rather than a passive referral network? In this presentation, we will describe a case study of our in-depth collaboration between the University Libraries and the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at the University of Minnesota. Both groups are developing new suites of data management services to meet evolving researcher needs and rising demands for data management support. Working together has provided many advantages for sharing resources and knowledge, but also has presented challenges, including how to define the respective roles of college-level and university-wide data management services, and how formalized collaborations may work. We will describe these challenges and how the collective and complementary skills of our offices will provide researchers with support across much larger portions of the research life cycle than either office could provide alone.
Understanding Researcher Needs in Data Management: A Comparison of Four Colleges in a Large American University
(2015) Hofelich Mohr, Alicia; Braun, Steven; Bishoff, Carolyn; Bishoff, Josh; Johnston, Lisa R
The diverse nature of research makes identifying needs and providing support for data management a complex task in an academic setting. To better understand this diversity, we compare the findings from three surveys on research data management delivered to faculty across 104 departments in the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus. Each survey was separately run in the Medical School, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences and the College of Science & Engineering and modified to use language that paralleled the different cultural understandings of research and data across these disciplines. Our findings reveal common points of need, such as a desire for more data management support across the research life cycle, with the strongest needs related to preparing data for sharing, data preservation, and data dissemination. However, the results also reveal striking differences across the disciplines in attitudes and perceptions toward data management, awareness of existing requirements, and community expectations. These survey results can be used by others to demonstrate that a one-size-fits-all approach to supporting data management is not appropriate for a large research university and that the services developed should be sensitive to discipline-specific research practices and perceived needs.
Data Management Needs Assessment - Surveys in CLA, AHC, CSE, and CFANS
(2015) Hofelich Mohr, Alicia; Bishoff, Josh; Johnston, Lisa R; Braun, Steven; Storino, Christine; Bishoff, Carolyn
Researcher's data management needs were assessed at four colleges with in the University of Minnesota: The College of Liberal Arts (CLA), the Academic Health Center (AHC), the College of Science and Engineering (CSE), and the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). The initial survey was designed in CLA and featured a branched design that presented researchers one of two versions of the questions based on how respondents described the products of their scholarship - as "data" or "research materials". The survey was then customized for the other colleges, adding or editing questions based on feedback from disciplinary experts, while maintaining comparability across surveys. Surveys were run between September 2013 and and February 2015.
A Review of Data Management Plans (DMPs) from Successful National Science Foundation Grants from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2011-2014
(2015-02-27) Johnston, Lisa R; Bishoff, Carolyn
In order to better understand the ongoing needs of campus researchers for managing and sharing their research data the University Libraries conducted a local study of Data Management Plans (DMPs) included in successful National Science Foundation grant applications from January 2011 - June 2014. Participation in the study was opt-in by U of M principal investigators (PIs) on the grants. Thanks to support within the colleges for participation the libraries collected 182 data management plans for our study, accounting for 41% of the total number of plans solicited. Overall, the College of Science of Engineering accounted for the majority of plans, accounting for 80% of the plans included in the review. The results of this study will inform the development of robust and targeted data services, both from the libraries and our campus partners, that aim to increase the impact of research produced at the University of Minnesota.

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

University Digital Conservancy

Browse

Browsing Lisa R Johnston by Issue Date

Results Per Page

Sort Options