10 Data Science for Librarians Data.gov strives to improve and facilitate public access to highly valu- able, machine-readable data sets that are produced by the executive branch of the U.S. federal government. This website is a great repository for state, federal, local, as well as tribal government information that is made avail- able to the general public. Publicly developed on the GitHub platform, the Data.gov domain is powered by CKAN and WordPress, both of which are open-sourced applications. Principles of Open Government Data When making government data open to the public, institutions need to follow a set standard. Compliance with the following guidelines is essential for data to be established as open. • Primary Nature: The data needs to be as it was collected from the source rather than in aggregated or modified forms. This ensures high levels of granularity. This requirement implies that, if an entity processes the data with aggregation or transcending methods to make it usable on a website meant for its end users, it has an obliga- tion, by law, to make the complete information available. This is so that others can rely on the data for use on their respective websites while preserving it at the same time. • Machine Processable: For automatic system processing purposes, data needs to be structured systematically. In addition, data needs to be thoroughly encoded so that it is suitable for use by a wider audi- ence. Remember that free-form text is not a suitable alternative to organized tabular statistics and records. Similarly, simply adding an image of the text doesn’t substitute for actually incorporating rele- vant text. Hence, users should have access to reliable sources for data and for other data items in their original format. • Timely: This principle implies that data should be captured and made available to users as soon as pos si ble. This helps preserve data value. Research Data in Academic Libraries An academic library is a designated place, either digital or physical, that is set aside for storing and maintaining scholarly research materials which support the academic, college, or university community and curriculum. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), there are about 3,700 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the United States, with 92 percent of them having an academic library. It is worth men- tioning that there is a lot of variation among academic libraries depending on factors such as their resources, size, collections, and services. The majority of academic libraries, such as the Harvard University Library, serve universities and colleges, their staff, students, and faculty. Also, larger institutions often tend to have multiple libraries on their cam- puses that are dedicated solely to serving specific schools like science and law libraries. This is why many academic librarians usually become experts in specific fields of knowledge and secure faculty status, where they can be a liaison to specific disciplines.
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