News and Announcements

Remembering Darrell

By San

November 21, 2019

On Saturday, April 27, 2019, IASSIST and the broader data professional’s community lost a valued colleague and friend, Darrell Donakowski. The IASSIST organization mourns his untimely death and wishes to recognize the significant contributions he made to the data community over the course of his career. Darrell Donakowski. Photo from ICPSR. Friends and family have created a scholarship at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in his memory. At the suggestion of the several members and with the approval of the Administrative Committee, IASSIST has contributed $1000 to the scholarship to recognize the numerous contributions Darrell made to the data community right up to the time of his premature passing.

IQ 43(3) Available: As open as possible and as closed as needed

By mhayslett

September 27, 2019

Welcome to the third issue of volume 43 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 43:3, 2019). Yes, we are open! Open data is good. Just a click away. Downloadable 24/7 for everybody. An open government would make the decisionmakers' data open to the public and the opposition. As an example, communal data on bicycle paths could be open, so more navigation apps would flourish and embed the information in maps, which could suggest more safe bicycle routes.

Editor's notes: The interest group on qualitative data sums up and continues

By mhayslett

June 28, 2019

Welcome to the second issue of volume 43 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 43:2, 2019). With joy and pride the many people behind each issue of the IQ are here presenting a special issue. IASSIST has several interest groups of members committed to selected important areas under the umbrella of IASSIST. Be aware that you could become a member of an interest group (see: Committees and groups). If an interest area that you find important is not presently on this list, you are invited to start campaigning for the formation of a new interest group.

IQ 43(1): Standardization and certification save us from the frustrations of the Greek drama

By mhayslett

May 13, 2019

Welcome to the first issue of volume 43 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 43:1, 2019). The IASSIST Quarterly presents in this issue three papers illustrated in the title above. Chronologically we start from an early beginning. No, not with Turing, we time travel further back and experience ancient Greece. In this submission the Greek drama delivers the form, while data librarians deliver the content on data sharing. And it makes you a proud IASSISTer to know that altruism is the rationale behind data sharing.

Failure as the Treatment for Transforming Complexity to Complicatedness

By mhayslett

February 22, 2019

Welcome to the fourth issue of volume 42 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 42:4, 2018). The IASSIST Quarterly presents in this issue three papers. When you know how, cycling is easy. However, data for cycling infrastructure appears to be a messiness of complications, stakeholders and data producers. The exemplary lesson is that whatever your research area there are often many views and types of data possible for your research. And the fuller view does not make your research easier, but it does make it better.

IASSIST Quarterly Volume 42:3 now available!

By mhayslett

December 13, 2018

Editor’s notes: *Digital curation after digital extraction for data sharing* Welcome to the third issue of volume 42 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 42:3, 2018). The IASSIST Quarterly presents in this issue three papers from geographically widespread countries. We call IASSIST ‘International’, so I am happy to present papers from three continents in this issue with papers from Zimbabwe, Italy and Canada. The paper ‘The State of Preparedness for Digital Curation and Preservation: A Case Study of a Developing Country Academic Library’ is by Phillip Ndhlovu, who works as the institutional repository librarian and liaison librarian, and Thomas Matingwina, who is a lecturer at the Department of Library and Information Service at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

IASSIST Quarterly Volume 42:2 now available!

By mhayslett

July 19, 2018

Editor’s notes: Metadata is key - the most important data after data Welcome to the second issue of volume 42 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 42:2, 2018). The IASSIST Quarterly has had several papers on many different aspects of the Data Documentation Initiative - for a long time better known by its acronym DDI, without any further explanation. DDI is a brand. The IASSIST Quarterly has also included special issues of collections of papers concerning DDI.

IASSIST Quarterly Volume 42:1 available

By mhayslett

May 24, 2018

Editor’s notes: Rebuilding, Preserving and Reproducing Welcome to the first issue of Volume 42 of the IASSIST Quarterly (IQ 42:1, 2018). The IASSIST Quarterly has a focus on curation, preservation and reproduction of research, and all three bases are covered in this issue. The reproduction of earlier results from archived data is a validation of the data and also of the earlier research. The mimicking reuse of data for reproduction of the original results is the normal first step before use of the data for new purposes.

IASSIST Quarterly Volume 41 available--on a new web site!

By mhayslett

May 2, 2018

Welcome to the first issue of Volume 41 of the IASSIST Quarterly. It has taken extra time for this issue to appear. The cause of this is not that we have been extra lazy. The paradoxical cause is that a great many people have been extra busy. Thanks to the team of people in the editorial group of the IASSIST Quarterly and - not least - the great help from Sonya Betz working as Digital Initiatives Projects Librarian at the University of Alberta Libraries in Canada, the IASSIST Quarterly has now moved to the Open Journal System (OJS) at the University of Alberta.

Data Workshop at the National Library of Australia, sponsored by IASSIST

By h.mooney

December 15, 2017

Posted on behalf of Jade Koekoe In February I won sponsorship money from IASSIST for a Data Workshop I had in mind. On the 18 November this year I saw my idea come to life. This Data Workshop was aimed at Library student and newgrads and was held in the Ferguson Room of the National Library of Australia. 26 people attended and there were five speakers from industries adjacent to librarianship.