Book Reviews

Data Information Literacy

Margaret O'Brien
Information Management
Marine Science Institute
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
margaret.obrien@ucsb.edu

Carlson, J. and Johnston, L. (eds). 2015. Data Information Literacy: Librarians, Data, and the Education of a New Generation of Researchers. Purdue University Press. ISBN: 9781612493527. $14.99

In Data Information Literacy, Carson and Johnston present the experiences of a group of librarians as they develop practices for educating their academies on topics of data management. The authors discuss the efficacy with which data proficiency is currently acquired, and different approaches to integrating topics into local graduate programs using case studies, interviews and objective measures. The case studies are generally from the sciences, but the concepts and techniques could be more broadly applied, e.g, to the humanities or social sciences, as these areas also have significant interests in data and data artifacts.

One might think that the intended audience for this volume would be an educator or librarian; however, this reader is neither. Instead, I am a data curator for a large network who interacts regularly with researchers working in the natural sciences. This volume provides a broad vocabulary which puts my own work in context. Additionally, the summary views, survey results and case studies of work with graduate students and their mentors are a view into the communities curators work with regularly, providing curators with insights into researchers' attitudes toward many aspects data management.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.