The Critical Data Studies Lab explores the sociotechnical dimensions and debates over how data is made, managed and moves.
Projects
Data Afterlives
In collaboration with Dr. Megan Finn and colleagues at the University of Washington, this project aims to enhance our understanding of data management plans (DMPs) and their role in shaping data life-cycles of federally funded science. The Data Afterlives project considers the organization and structure of DMPs across fields, the institutions involved in data sharing, data preservation practices, the extent to which DMPs enable others to use secondary project data, and the kinds of data governance and preservation practices that ensure that data are sustained and accessible. With a comparative research design and mixed methods, this study enables theory building about cross-disciplinary data practices and data cultures across fields to advance knowledge within data studies, information management studies, and science and technology studies.
NSF SES-2020183
Platform Development, Mobile Apps and Social Media Data Preservation
User-created social and mobile platform data is the fastest form of data creation in internet-connected information infrastructures. While many LIS scholars and digital preservation practitioners have engaged with the power of web archives, few have begun to examine the impact and techniques for preserving the mobile and social media data found in platforms. How do platform developers working outside of libraries, archives, and museums design systems for the creation and preservation of social media data? This research project gathers empirical data about emerging and experimental approaches to long-term access of mobile and social media data, including emerging preservation tools and stewardship practices that could be transferred to library, archive, and museum contexts.
IMLS RE-07-18-0008-18
Emulation Practices in Libraries, Archives and Museums
Libraries, archives, and museums are at the beginnings of a significant change in providing access to digital cultural memory with software preservation. With the ever expanding reach of software-driven technologies in our lives, preserving the software itself becomes necessary in the provision of information services, ranging from research data access to software-dependent information objects. Providing access to information through software emulation techniques will likely transform the culture, practice, and access experiences to digital cultural heritage as well as best practices for digital preservation professionals. This two-year study of emerging emulation and software preservation practices in professional communities aims to identify capacity gaps and educational development opportunities for digital preservation, software studies, and information infrastructure scholars.
IMLS RE-95-17- 0058-17