The Metadata Research Center, Drexel College of Computing & Informatics (CCI), in partnership with Montana State University Library, UC San Diego Library, and OCLC, has been awarded $887,154 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for the LIS Education and Data Science-Integrated Network Group (LEADING). LEADING is Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian (LB21) National Digital Infrastructures and Initiatives project that will build data science capacity through recruiting, training and developing the library workforce.
The LEADING project will officially launch Nov. 1, 2020, building off the highly successful LEADS initiative and extending the data science educational pipeline to a broader range of participants. LEADING will prepare a diverse, nationwide cohort of 50 LIS doctoral students and early to mid-career librarians for data science endeavors. LEADING’s model includes community hubs at Montana State University and UC San Diego, a co-educational hub at the global library cooperative, OCLC and 14 member nodes that will serve as mentoring sites. Drexel University’s Metadata Research Center will also serve as the central-coordinating hub facilitating collaboration amongst all partners.
The LEADING community of hubs and nodes is further shaped by 19 mentors, with expertise across data science; a Diversity and Inclusivity Taskforce, guided by former LEADS fellows; and an advisory board of nationally recognized experts in data science, education, and community development. Together, the LEADING network of educators, researchers, library leaders, mentors and fellows will advance and catalyze data science across libraries, archives and intersecting information agencies.
LEADING PIs include Drexel Professors Jane Greenberg (LEADING project director), Il-Yeol Song (sr. co-lead), Weimao Ke, Erjia Yan, and Jake Williams; and partner PIs, Kenning Arlitsch, dean, Montana State University Library, and professor; Erik Mitchell, Audrey Geisel University Librarian, UC San Diego Library; and Andrew K. Pace, executive director for technical research, OCLC. LEADING’s core team also includes Drexel University Professors Mat Kelly, Lei Wang, and Alex Poole; and Project Manager Sam Grabus. Please visit the LEADING website for more information about the network, and a full list of mentors, member nodes, as well as task force and advisory board members.
About the Metadata Research Center at Drexel CCI
The Metadata Research Center, located at Drexel CCI, leads and innovates metadata solutions for pressing information/data-oriented challenges. Metadata, semantics, and ontologies are vital for effectively and efficiently using and manipulating data. The MRC is committed to advancing research in these areas, formalizing metadata-driven methods and approaches, and vitalizing our capacities for using data across all sectors.
Current MRC research initiatives target metadata capital, digital data, knowledge organization and ontologies, linked data, and automatic metadata generation methods through leadership and engagement two NSF-HDR (Harnessing the Data Revolution) initiatives Accelerating the Discovery of Electronic Materials through Human-Computer Active Search and Biology-guided Neural Networks for Discovering Phenotypic Traits; an NSF Spoke project; A Licensing Model and Ecosystem for Data Sharing, and the NEH-supported Developing the Data Set of Nineteenth-Century Knowledge project. The Metadata Research Center is also active in the Research Data Alliance global network and the Northeast Big Data Hub.