This article analyzes 21 in-depth interviews of engineering and atmospheric science faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to determine faculty data management practices and needs within the context of their research activities. A detailed literature review of previous large-scale and institutional surveys and interviews…

We report on the implementation experience of carrying out data collection and other activities for a public health evaluation study on whether U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) investment improved utilization of health services and health system strengthening in Uganda. The retrospective study period focused on the PEPFAR…

This Spotlight focuses on data from the 2013 Core Data Service [CDS] to better understand how higher education institutions approach business intelligence (BI) reporting and data warehouse systems (see the Sidebar for definitions). Information provided for this Spotlight was derived from Module 8 of CDS, which contains several questions regarding…

The introduction of sensor technologies to sports has allowed athletes to quantify and track their performance, adding an information-based layer to athletic practices. This information layer is particularly prevalent in practices involving formal competition and high levels of physical endurance, such as biking and running. We interviewed 20…

Product development of Japanese companies has changed greatly from the post-war revival period, when it was promoted mainly to provide low-cost, high-quality products. In recent years, it has become necessary to develop products and services that correspond to social issues. Research and development has shifted from a technological basis to a…

Rapidly growing within academic libraries, library data services have often been focused on assessing research trends and building partnerships outside the library. There are distinct benefits, however, to using data audit methodologies created for these external assessments of researcher practices inside the library as well. In this article, we…

Information systems produce significant benefits to organizations. Therefore, organizations invest tremendous amount of money and time to obtain and manage information in order to maintain a high level of performance and to remain competitive. There are many factors that can impact the organizational information management and performance. One of…

Colorado State University librarians conducted five focus groups with thirty-one faculty, research scientists, and research associates. The groups explored: (1) The nature of data sets that these researchers create or maintain; (2) How participants manage their data; (3) Needs for support that the participants identify in relation to sharing,…

As more children are growing up in cities than ever before, cities are investigating new ways to become more child-friendly, and to measure their progress towards this goal. Data dashboards are one tool that can help a city set policy priorities, monitor progress, encourage collaboration, inform decisions, increase accountability, and strengthen…

Libraries are actively seeking to identify and respond to the data management and curation needs of researchers. One important perspective often overlooked in acquiring an understanding is that of graduate students. This case study used the Data Curation Profile Toolkit to interview six graduate students working for agronomy researchers at the…

The No Child Left Behind Act increases pressure on schools and districts to use standardized state test data. Seeking to learn about the process of turning accountability data into actionable information, this paper presents findings from three case studies of small to medium sized school districts. The study examines the flow of state science…

Objectives: Successful implementation of child protection program interventions and child and family welfare services is contingent upon the availability and use of good quality information, as emphasized by the recent Convention on the Rights of the Child's General Comment 13. Yet, the role of information within child protection is not well…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on behalf of the United States Department of Education in order to collect extensive data on American public and private elementary and secondary schools. SASS provides data on the characteristics and qualifications of teachers and…

Using data to improve educational practice in schools has become a popular reform strategy that has grown as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Districts and schools across the United States are under a great deal of pressure to collect and analyze data in hopes of identifying student weaknesses to implement corrective action plans…

Over the past decade, an important focus of researchers has been on supply chain management (SCM), as many organizations believe that effective SCM is the key to building and sustaining competitive advantage for their products/services. To manage the supply chain, companies need to adopt an SCM strategy (SCMS) and implement appropriate SCM…