Information professionals build infrastructures and engage with researchers to facilitate preservation of and access to research data. While data services are relevant to researchers across disciplines - particularly in light of the growing expectation that publicly-funded research produce publicly accessible data and scholarship - how these services are structured and presented may prioritize some modes of scholarship while excluding others. In this workshop, we identify ways that data-related services are developed and communicated in relation to a variety of research methodologies and paradigms. Specifically, we focus on how the language around the very definition of data and the rationale for data management often exclude research data produced through qualitative, interpretive, and critical approaches. Using their own organization’s data-related services, participants will examine the language used to promote resources and programming aimed at scholars. Participants will be asked to assess how the services offered and the language used to promote those services communicate implicit or explicit ideas about the nature of research. We’ll also discuss alternative ways of describing data work that is more intentionally inclusive of the variety of research methodologies used by the range of scholars at each organization.

Speakers: Jessica Hagman (University of Illinois Library) and Hilary Bussell (Ohio State University Libraries)