A Brief History of Data in Canada and Canadian Academic

Libraries

Presentation to Maynooth University Librarians and Friends

Wendy Watkinswendy.watkins@carleton.ca

Carleton UniversityMarch, 2014

Outline

• A brief history of data in Canada• Data Liberation as a catalyst• Carleton University’s Library Data Centre• Abracadabra--the birth of MADGIC in the Library• The broader picture– Canada’s shameful record– Research Data Management and Open Data

• Where in the world are the leaders?• Questions?

In the Beginning

There was the Machine-Readable Archives of the Public Archives of Canada (MRAD-PAC)

What Happened?

Wandering in the Wilderness• No national leadership• No international voice• Handful of data services in university

computing centres and research units• Statistics Canada data priced out of reach

Changing of the Guard – New Government

• Statistics Canada data had always been expensive• Licences forbade sharing; researchers needed grants or cash

• 1986 Census cancelled and reinstated under cost-recovery• Statistics Canada’s prices increased up to 1000%• Universities priced out of the picture (many not in the frame in the first

place)

Home-grown measures• Universities formed purchasing consortia for

Statistics Canada Data• Involved separate negotiations for every research

file (there were about 250)• Not everyone could afford to play• Needed another solution

Bring on the Liberators

• 1992 – Paper “Liberating the Data”– Proposed affordable access for Canadian universities

• 1996 – Data Liberation Inititative (DLI) launched• Annual subscription for post-secondary

institutions for– All STC’s public microdata, aggregate data and

geographic files – 50 universities in year 1– 75 now; nearly 100% coverage

• Carleton’s DLI home is in the Library Data Centre

Carleton University’s Library Data Centre

(est. 1965)

Data Rescues and the <odesi> project

• Involved in several major data rescues– Canadian Gallup Polls (1945-2000)– The Centre for Research and Information on

Canada– Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation– Listening to Canadians

• Major instigator in the development of a web-based data documentation and extraction service

ABRACADABRA, the Birth of MADGIC(Maps, Data and Government Information Centre)

MADGIC – View from the Desk

Maps in MADGIC

GIS in MADGIC

Gov Docs in MADGIC

Canada – Data Collection in Jeopardy

• Successive budget cuts have crippled the world’s number 1 statistical agency

Datalibre.ca Urging governments to make data free and easlily

accessible for Canadians• Tracey Lauriault is a fearless fighter for open data

and evidence-based policy• Great place to keep abreast of Canadian data news

Research Data Management and Open Data: Calling all Librarians

• Open data without management will remain locked

• Librarians have the skills to organize open data

Where are the Experts? Try Scotland

• University of Edinburgh has

• and the Digital Curation Centre in cooperation with the Universities of Glasgow and Bath

Where Else Are the Experts? Try CESSDA

Questions?