News

As a PhD in chemistry, my route to the RDAP Summit was not straightforward. With academic activities in biochemistry and molecular biology, I had a scientist job in a biobank for two years. In early 2024, I joined the Research Service team in the Bernard Becker Medical Library at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis as a senior support scientist. The RDAP 2024 Summit provided me with a quick overview of the field and a networking opportunity. The main benefit was helping me quickly adapt to a new environment. After one year experience as a data management and sharing consultant, as well as a manager of our institutional repository, I gained much deeper appreciation of the various sessions in the RDAP 2025 Summit. Hopefully, the new knowledge will translate into more efficient work.

Without formal librarianship training, it is important for me to know many data service resources. I collected a resource list during the Summit and would like to share it with scientists who recently entered the Research Data Access and Preservation field.

1. The new RDAP LinkedIn page. One way to support RDAP is to follow the page and share posts with your LinkedIn circle.

2. The RDAP Discuss listserv. The listserv community is an important resource for information related to data service.

3. Research Data Alliance (RDA). Joining RDA’s individual membership gives one opportunity to work with others around the world to develop and adopt infrastructure that promotes data-sharing and data-driven research. The RDA-US community has a slack channel for data service-related discussions.

4. The DataCure slack channel. DataCure is an informal group of librarians and other information professionals whose members have significant roles or responsibilities in providing services in managing or curating research data. This document contains more information about this group. I am happy to help others joining the group.

5. The Public Interest Corpus is a new project focused on developing large-scale, high-quality AI training data from the world’s libraries and archives to serve the public interest. With the rapid growing interest in AI, this project may become a major resource for publicly available AI training data.

6. The Digital Library Federation (DLF) has a few working groups that are useful for the data service community. For example, the Metadata Support Group has a slack channel on metadata-related discussions.

7. The Data Curation Network (DCN) offers annual workshops for data professionals to improve their skills. Travel expenses for workshops may be covered by DCN.

8. The Data Services Continuing Professional Education (DSCPE) is a program for early-to-mid-career librarians to gain essential skills in data services. The best candidates are within three years of data service-related positions.

I attended two interesting workshops before the main event. The workshop materials are in the following links: Evolving the 3-2-1 backup rule for more resilient data and Programming Logic for Non-Programmers.

Finally, I would like to thank RDAP and the Summit sponsors for the generous scholarship.

<<Previous Winner || Next Winner>>

My name is Aubrey Jarvis and I am attending Syracuse University online to obtain my Masters of Library and Information Science degree. One of the reasons I am seeking my MLIS degree is because of my passion for archival work primarily related to digital spaces. 2025 marks the near completion of my first year in graduate studies.

When a colleague shared about the RDAP Summit opportunity, I saw an organization that was passionate and mission-oriented about data. In an effort to network with other colleagues and to expand my understanding, I applied for the RDAP 2025 Summit.

While I do not currently have a job in librarianship or data services, I appreciated the opportunity to connect with other colleagues and participate in discussions within the field. I worked as a Technology Director for K-12 schools in Oregon for seven years before I sought my MLIS. Much of what was being discussed actually felt familiar.

Without the scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to attend this important summit. I wouldn’t have been able to listen to panels, such as Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Partnerships regarding collaborative work with researchers, supporting researchers, and strengthening relationships we have with other colleagues. I wouldn’t have been able to learn about the Data Rescue Project and their vital mission of cataloging public data. I wouldn’t have been able to attend the opening keynote that validated our feelings as researchers and reminded me to "focus on focus."

While this conference may have been centered around data access and preservation, the most valuable lesson I took away was that of community. I saw many researchers, archivists, librarians, data scientists, and others coming together in times of crisis to support one another. I saw researchers sharing strategies, waving flags, and detailing road maps. I saw resilience in action surrounded by what matters most: our data and our humanity. Our strength is in our interdependence. I left the conference knowing there were so many doing the work to keep our data safe and that there were a variety of researchers continuing to do excellent work despite the ominous future ahead.

More than likely, I will find a career along these lines of research data, access, and preservation. I look forward to re-joining the RDAP community and attending conferences in the future. Thank you to RDAP, my summit buddy Talisha Harrison, Amy Koshoffer, and those who conducted the New Members and First Time Attendees Get-Together. I felt welcome and I wish you all the best of luck.

<<Previous Winner || Next Winner>>

Thank you to everyone who filled out the Summit Modality survey and the RDAP 2025 post-conference survey. The Executive Board met after the Summit to review the results and, after consultations with the 2026 RDAP Conference Planning Committee, has decided to hold the RDAP Summit 2026 online. While the Executive Board was really looking forward to seeing everyone in-person in 2026, we have no control over current events and can only respond to the scenario we are in. The biggest contributing factors in our decision were the elimination of institutional professional development funds many RDAP attendees rely on to attend the Summit and the travel safety concerns brought forward by RDAP members. We understand that in-person events are more effective for networking and building community. Therefore, we will be reaching out to regional and international data conferences to explore the possibility of holding RDAP meetups at their in-person conferences. Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to seeing you online at RDAP 2026 or in-person at a future RDAP meetup.

If you have any questions, please send them to the RDAP President email, president@rdapassociation.org.

By: Nina Exner and Megan O’Donnell

On December 12, 2024, the National Science Foundation (NSF)  announced in the Federal Register that there would be an “Agency Information Collection Activity: Comment Request.” The comment request specifically opened a public comment period about a Draft  NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) for 2026 due February 10, 2025.

The PAPPG is a long document that outlines both how to apply for NSF awards and what is expected of those who are awarded NSF grants. Of note to RDAP members, it is where the NSF data management plan (DMP) policy and guidance about public access compliance is documented (although there is also additional information on the NSF website, particularly on directorate-specific pages.).

Nina Exner, (Virginia Commonwealth University), sent the Executive Board an official request for RDAP to respond to the draft as it contained significant changes to data management plan requirements. The Executive Board approved the request in early January and appointed Megan O’Donnell (RDAP Secretary, Iowa State University) and Nina Exner to lead the response task force.

Due to the release of the draft shortly before many of us took holiday leave, there was a tight deadline for assembling the task force, analyzing changes, and drafting comments. However, less than 24-hours after the call for volunteers was sent out we had more volunteers than we could easily organize and capped membership to the first six respondents.

Three sections were identified for response:

• Part 1 Ch II.i.ii Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP) of the Products of Research (pg 70-71)
• Part II. Ch XI.D.2.c Public Access to Copyrighted Material (pg 185); and
• Part II. Ch XI. D. 4 (pg 187)

Even with this limited scope there was a considerable amount to analyze and comment on as there were some significant and surprising changes to data management and public access requirements. The biggest change was the change of how the DMSP (formally DMP) would be submitted. Instead of a separate document, it would be completed through a web form on the research.gov proposal platform. Some of the sections of the DMSP also showed changes and there was new information about DOIs, how to submit dataset metadata to NSF-PAR, and new metadata and intellectual property issues related to data and data sharing.

We recommend that RDAP members who work with NSF funded research read the yellow-highlighted text of pages 70, 71, 185, and 187 of the draft. While not final, the draft provides insight into where and how DMP/DMSPs and public access requirements are likely to change.

A copy of the comment RDAP submitted to NSF is available through the RDAP OSF archive.

Thank you to all of the commenters that gave us input and insights through Slack and email, to the RDAP executive board officers, and to our stellar task force!  Because of the holidays we ended up with a quite short timeframe to do the work and we appreciate every bit of insight and effort contributed.

The task force members who drafted RDAP’s comment are:

• Nina Exner (co-lead)

• Megan O’Donnell (co-lead)
• Jen Ferguson
• Sarah Gonzalez
• Dani Kirsch
• Lauren Phegley
• Allie Tararian
• Brian Westra

Association members can request an official association response by contacting the Executive Board. More information about this can be found on the Advocacy Request page.

Hi RDAP members,

As we enter another year, we are grateful to our colleagues and fellow RDAP members who continue to put in the work to better our professional community and the world around us. An example of such work is the RDAP Digitally Accessible Data and Data Repositories Working Group, which is now up and running. Meetings started in November 2024, and the group anticipates working for 12 months as it moves toward final dissemination of its results later this year. As a reminder, the group is charged with summarizing relevant ADA rules, current knowledge and the state of the field on accessibility of repositories and data; and proposing best practices for creating actually accessible research data to assist institutions in complying with ADA. The group as a whole can be contacted at access-wg@rdapassociation.org. Learn more about this working group and other action committees and task forces.

We hope you enjoy this first RDAP newsletter of the new year and we look forward to seeing you all (virtually) in March at the 2025 RDAP Summit!

---

Updates from the Board

Happy New Year from the RDAP Executive Board! Wishing you all the best for the year ahead.

As the Executive Board wrapped up 2024, we had great discussions with the Library Data Services (LIDS) research team about the transfer of maintenance of this informative dataset to RDAP. The LIDS dataset gives a snapshot of data services offered by libraries at US R1 and R2 institutions and by maintaining the dataset, we’ll be able to expand the institutions included and see the changes in data services over time. We will be looking for volunteers to help with the update after the Summit as part of our regular volunteer recruitment. 

The Executive Board has also been reviewing our finances for ways to reduce administrative expenses as we start budgeting for our in-person Summit in 2026. We are also continuing our aim to make sure all RDAP working and archival documents are on the RDAP-owned Google Drive. 

The new year brings changes in the wider data landscape as well. The National Science Foundation recently released their new Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) with big changes to the data management and sharing plan section. Thank you to everyone who responded to our call for volunteers to draft a response from the RDAP community which is being organized by Nina Exner and Megan O’Donnell.

If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to check out RDAP’s new website. It looks amazing! Thank you to the Website Committee for all their hard work. Looking forward to seeing many of you at the RDAP Summit in March and the annual business meeting on March 13. A link for the annual business meeting will be sent out to all RDAP members and you are welcome to attend even if you are not able to attend the Summit this year.

The RDAP Executive Board welcomes your input and feedback. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at execboard@rdapassociation.org (or reach out to the President directly at president@rdapassociation.org).

The RDAP Board,

• Tess Grynoch (President) 
• Ali Krzton (President-elect)
• Megan O'Donnell (Secretary)
• Reid Boehm (Treasurer)
• Rachel Woodbrook (Past President)

---

RDAP Feature Article

The Turing Way: Towards reproducible, ethical and collaborative research

The Turing Way is an open science, open collaboration, and community-driven project. It is a global community dedicated to making research and data science open, collaborative and ethical for everyone. After five years of existence, The Turing Way has produced several resources in support of open (data) science. You have probably encountered graphics from The Turning Way in presentations over the past several years.They are typically credited as "illustration from Scriberia and the Turing Way Community", such as this example:

The moonshot goal of The Turing Way is to make reproducibility “too easy not to do”. This image was created by Scriberia for The Turing Way community and is used under a CC-BY 4.0 licence. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3332807

A significant output of this community has been a book, available at https://book.the-turing-way.org/index.html, which provides information for those involved or interested in research on how to make data projects more reproducible and reusable. The Turing Way was developed by a diverse community of contributors in order to make data practices accessible, comprehensible, and effective for as broad an audience as possible. 

The Turing Way book is made up of five guides: Reproducible Research, Project Design, Communication, Collaboration and Ethical Research. These guides introduce good practices and improve research habits within data projects. Topics are introduced in accessible language and paired with curated resources encouraging readers to dive deeper into topics of their choice. All the content, including chapters and images, is available under a CC-BY licence, allowing others to reuse these for their own purposes. The Turing Way is designed to be ever-evolving. We embrace a version-controlled workflow, modelling the principles outlined in the book, allowing us to keep track of how data science practices are changing as well as a history of The Turing Way itself.

Our community members and general audience includes, but are not limited to:, undergrad students, PhD researchers, postdocs, software engineers, project leaders, team coordinators, community managers, data stewards, librarians, data science educators, open science practitioners, and more. As of June 2024, The Turing Way community has been joined by more than 1000 members and the handbook has over 6000 monthly users worldwide.

An example of content created by The Turing Way is the chapter on Research Data Management, which includes information on the FAIR principles, data storage and organisation, curation, and sharing. Sections in this chapter have been added since The Turing Way began, and continue to be extended and updated by a wide variety of experts in data management, such as data stewards, researchers, students, community managers, bioinformaticians, research assistants, and librarians.

An illustration about why Research Data Management is important if you want to be able to use the data of research projects. This image was created by Scriberia for The Turing Way community and is used under a CC-BY 4.0 licence. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3332807

Role of Community in Advancing Practices

Diversity, intersectionality, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are woven into the fabric of The Turing Way community. The community spaces are purposefully created to ensure the involvement of a diverse range of contributors, representing varied interests and applying equitable approaches in addressing them. Contributors from different domains and expertise are welcomed and supported to collaborate under a Code of Conduct, ensuring enjoyable and safe engagement for everyone in the community. Details about how to contribute to the Turing Way works are outlined in the contribution guidelines.

“All contributions are valued in The Turing Way - from fixing a typo to adding new content and sharing examples from your work. Whatever you can do right now, in this moment, is what we need and what we appreciate.” - The Turing Way

The Turing Way is a living book, written collaboratively by a community of learners, educators and practitioners creating something that is better than what each individual could achieve on their own. As of June 2024, The Turing Way book has been co-authored by more than 450 diverse contributors, details for which are available in the Contributors Records.

The Turing Way book serves as a Digital Public Good and has been listed as one by the Digital Public Good Alliance (DPGA) for its alignment with “Sustainable Development Goals 4 (SDG4): Quality Education”. In this context, The Turing Way acts as a high-quality reference and educational material for people at different stages of their learning in data science.

Getting involved

We invite you to explore the book! If you are looking for information on a particular aspect of open (data) science and you cannot find that information in the book, please help to develop it and join the community!

You can join the Slack channel, sign up for the newsletter, or join an upcoming Collaboration Café (regular online co-working call of the community). Please visit the Start Page for more ways to get involved.

Author biography

Esther Plomb is a member of The Turing Way. If there are questions about this article or about The Turing Way, please reach out to her at e.plomp8@gmail.com

---

RDAP Summit Updates

Registration is now open for RDAP Summit 2025, which will take place March 11-13, 2025, with workshops on March 10. Workshop descriptions and a detailed schedule for the Summit are available on the event website.

Summit registration is $30 for members/students/those with a financial hardship (please be sure to log in for membership rates) and $40 for non-members. The deadline to register is March 1, 2025.

RDAP Summit is for all who work toward management, access, and preservation of research data. The program includes presentations, lightning talks, panels, keynotes, and workshops. Optional social activities are also offered.

The theme of RDAP Summit 2025 is “Evolutions in Data Services: Forging Resiliency.” The Call for Proposals solicited presentations that explore concepts such as technical, human, and organizational durability and flexibility in response to challenges and changes in research and data service needs. The Call for Proposals is now closed.

If you have any questions about the Summit, please email rdapsummit@rdapassociation.org.

---

Action Committee Updates

DEIA

No updates at this time.

Education and Resources

RDAP is creating a promotion/tenure dossier archive. This members-only resource will let RDAP members view dossiers from other members to help prepare their own portfolios during the promotion/tenure process. Dossiers will be for member-use only and we request that they not be shared further. At this time, we are calling for submissions of successful promotion/tenure dossiers to the archive. We welcome materials from members in tenured/tenure-track positions as well as non-tenured positions that require submission of a portfolio for promotion and continuing appointment.  More information is available through the Resource Hub on the RDAP website.

On January 23, the Education and Resources Committee offered “Accessibly Create & FAIR(ly) Share Visualizations”. In this interactive webinar participants explored strategies to determine the accessibility of a graph, and learned tips for creating accessible graphs. Another opportunity is coming April 22. In the webinar “Mapping your RDM curation skills to historic data: a hands-on introduction to curating analog data,” participants will learn how to critically review historic datasets (both analog and born-digital), how to create adequate metadata to improve discovery and reuse, and what options are available to preserve it for the long-term.

RDAP Webinars are free to attend - register through the RDAP website. If you missed a webinar, past recordings are available to RDAP members through the Resource Hub on the RDAP website.

Marketing

The Marketing is excited to announce the addition of a new co-chair, Kelly Burns from Purdue University Libraries, and a new committee member, Jocelyn Swick-Jemison from University at Buffalo Libraries. 

The Marketing Committee has created a LinkedIn account for RDAP and look forward to engaging with members and potential members there. Please connect with us and share the page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rdap-association/. 

Membership

Please visit our new membership page, which went live this month! Membership has redesigned this page in collaboration with the Website Committee to better highlight the benefits of active RDAP membership.

We have also been working on highlighting founding members through badges in the directory. Founding members are those who joined during the initial member drive and whose donations helped seed the initial costs of forming an independent organization. Founding members retain the status as long as they maintain membership. If there are current members who believe they should have received a badge, they can get in contact with us via the membership email (membership@rdapassociation.org).

Our next news update has to do with the upcoming RDAP Summit! Are you familiar with our Summit Buddy Program? The Summit Buddy program is a way for participants who are new to RDAP to match with someone who has attended an RDAP Summit before. The Buddy Program is flexible and is a great way to expand one’s network. The RDAP Membership Committee hopes the program makes the Summit more inclusive, approachable, and useful for all participants. While there are no formal expectations for the program, we want Buddies to connect with each other. The time commitment for participating in this program is minimal, roughly 2-3 hours over the course of 2 weeks. Sign-ups are through the Summit registration form. We will begin matching mentors to mentees at the end of February until Summit registration closes (on March 1st).

We are also planning the New Member Event for the Summit. New members are encouraged to join us for trivia, prizes, and a chance to meet leadership. Keep an eye out for the date and time when this event will be held during this year’s Summit.

Publishing

We are pleased to share that the 2024 RDAP Summit Special Issue is now published. We thank our longstanding partners at the Journal of eScience Librarianship who have made the publication of this seventh (!) issue possible as well as the members of the RDAP Publishing Committee who served as guest editors. You can access the full edition of the 2024 Special Issue on JeSLIB’s website.

Sponsorship

Our dedicated Sponsorship Committee has been hard at work reaching out to potential sponsors, including both new organizations and those who have supported us in the past. We're thrilled to report that we're making great strides!

A huge thank you to everyone who has shared ideas for potential new sponsors - your input has been invaluable! If you have more suggestions, please don't hesitate to reach out to the committee at sponsorship@rdapassociation.org.

Website

The Web Committee officially launched the redesign of the RDAP website in mid-December. A major thank you to all the RDAP members who generously provided feedback and suggestions throughout the process, from the initial site architecture review to the final design elements.

The redesign, integrating Bootstrap’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript framework, allows us to bypass many of the limitations and accessibility issues in the default provider interface. It also enables us to be more flexible and dynamic with how we maintain our content and provides a better structure to introduce new features and member benefits, such as the upcoming Promotion & Tenure documentation.

Do you have feedback on the redesign? Content you found difficult to find? News you’d like us to feature on the homepage? Please get in touch with us via this short feedback form or by emailing webmaster@rdapassociation.org.

---

RDAP in the Wild: Member Updates

Got a member update to share? Members are invited to share recent great things you've done or will be doing! Tell us about your data policy papers! Invite us to your forthcoming data webinars! Send us your updates for our next newsletter (due out late April/early May): https://forms.gle/k2Nuciw1sWvLTQoV9.

Conferences and Webinars

February 5/12/19: Data Literacy in Action Webinar Series: From Principles to Practice: Data Literacy in Academic Libraries https://ci.unt.edu/dlcc/webinars/webinar-registration.html 

RESCHEDULED February 11, 2025: Join Kristin Briney and Megan O’Donnell for a webinar on “Making Repositories and Data Digitally Accessible.” https://knowledge.figshare.com/webinar/making-repositories-and-data-digitally-accessible 

New Jobs or Promotions

Ashley Jester has joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute as the Director, Research Data and Library Services and Co-Director, MBLWHOI Library

Corey Barber has joined IU Indianapolis University Library Center for Digital Scholarship as a Data Services Librarian

Congratulations to our 2024 RDAP member award winners! These awards celebrate significant contributions to the Association and to the field of research data access and preservation.

As our inaugural “Volunteers of the Year”, we congratulate the following individuals for their exceptional work on various RDAP committees:

• Ashley Thomas, Conference Planning Committee
• Shannon Sheridan, Education & Resources Committee
• Megan O’Donnell, Website Committee

Thank you for all you've done and continue to do for RDAP!

“Work of the Year” is awarded to Kristin Briney for The Research Data Management Workbook, a collection of exercises designed to help researchers improve their data management. This work is an excellent example of the significant work that our RDAP members contribute to, and we offer a huge congratulations to Kristin!

We would also like to highlight the Working Group on NIH DMSP Guidance, as an honorable mention.

Thank you to all those who submitted nominations and keep your eyes peeled for the next round of nominations!

My name is Casey Mckenna. I am a graduate student with Syracuse University’s iSchool, pursuing my MLIS. I take my courses online and am anticipating a graduation date of June, 2025. I was granted an opportunity to attend the RDAP conference, due to the generosity of the scholarship committee, donors and sponsors. I could not be more grateful that I, along with my fellow recipients, were offered this experience. The week began when my Summit Buddy, Erin Foster, a Research Data Management Lead at the University of California, Berkeley reached out to me. We shared bits about our backgrounds, experiences and our draw to RDAP. A few days later, we met over Zoom. With Erin on the West Coast, and me on the East Coast, I was reminded of how wonderful it is that we live in a world where we can connect with bright minds, regardless of location.

Having the opportunity to connect with a mentor within the community was important to me, as I am going through a bit of a career pivot, and have been hoping to connect with someone who was interested in having some conversations about their own experience. I have been both a mentee and mentor over the past eight years in particular, and truly enjoy the partnership that mentoring can bring. The committee did an excellent job of providing the schedule in advance, in order to give attendees the opportunity to plan which sessions they’d like to attend. I felt the presentations offered an array of experiences and projects, from individuals who have been in Research, Data, Access and Preservation roles for the entirety of their careers, to newcomers like me, receiving their MLIS degrees. I appreciated the diversity of the presentations, presenters, attendees and overall RDAP community.

I opted into two pre-summit courses, one on Python and the other on NIST RDaF Toolkit. Through taking these courses at the start of the summit, I began to tie my newer knowledge of coding languages to concepts I am learning in a new role. I appreciated that this conference allowed me to take what I learned back to real-life situations. As I entered each session, I reminded myself to be mindful of noticing where the conference's theme, ‘Bridging Boundaries: Interoperability in the Data Community,’ came up in each presentation.

In regards to the platform used for this summit, it was my first time encountering Pheedloop. I noted the incredible ease of use, and accessibility options. It was clear that this platform was thoughtfully designed, to ensure all attendees had the tools they needed for the duration of the conference. Channels had been created to communicate with fellow-first time attendees, giving us an opportunity to reach out to tech support and view recommended journal articles and resources. Upon completion of the summit, I was able to connect with several presenters and attendees, who I hope to both learn from and support moving forward. I’m excited about the year ahead, as a first time member of RDAP.

I’d like to extend my gratitude to the RDAP Association, the RDAP Sponsorship and Membership Action Committees, Joshua Finnell, Elsevier, Center for Open Science, Cornell University Library, Dryad, Iowa State University Libraries, University of Illinois Libraries and University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

My name is Elaine Kong, a first-year PhD student in Library and Information Science (LIS) at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Computing and Information. Attending the RDAP Summit was an invaluable experience, especially as a first-time attendee. I'm deeply appreciative of the sponsors for funding my scholarship, which made my participation possible and highlights the importance of accessibility in professional development opportunities.

The 2024 theme, “Bridging Boundaries: Interoperability in the Data Community” resonated with me due to its focus on collaboration and integration within the data community. The keynote address on the development of data metrics was particularly enlightening, emphasizing the evolving practices in data management and evaluation. Understanding the significance of data metrics in responsible data stewardship and their role in assessing the usage of open datasets was fascinating, highlighting the importance of continual improvement in data management practices.

One presentation that left a lasting impression was “Identifying Patterns of Racial Discrimination through Natural Language Processing”. The innovative approach of analyzing sentences and visualizing similarities across covenants opened my eyes to the potential applications of technology in addressing societal issues. The proposed future work, including implementing a spell checker and enhancing visualization capabilities, holds promise for further exploration into racial discrimination clauses and signatory restrictions.

The Buddy Program was a highlight of my experience. Learning from an experienced mentor provided valuable insights and guidance for my future career in LIS. The advice and mentorship have already begun shaping my professional journey, and I look forward to applying these lessons moving forward.

Moreover, the poster sessions provided a wealth of knowledge on various methodologies and practical projects in data services. Specific projects, such as “LIbrary Data Services (LIDS) dataset: A Golden Gate(way) to Collaboration” and “Data Bloom: Bridging Communities through Data Workshops”, showcased innovative approaches to data services in libraries. These projects stood out to me for their ability to bridge communities and foster collaboration through data-driven initiatives.

In addition, the social events for new members and first-time attendees, such as the social kickstart and game night, provided excellent networking opportunities and fostered a sense of community among participants.

In conclusion, the RDAP Summit was a transformative experience that equipped me with valuable skills, insights, and connections that will undoubtedly benefit my career in LIS. I'm grateful for the opportunity to attend and eager to continue applying what I've learned in my academic and professional endeavors, furthering my contributions to the field of LIS.

I am Mahmoud Barakat, MA in Cultural Heritage Studies at Central European University in Vienna, Austria. I have an engineering background, however, I became more interested in the data management field after doing an internship in archive and record management, where I was exposed to many data management aspects in archives and records management. I plan to do a PhD in the data and network science field.

At the RDAP summit, I learned many things that gave me more insightful visions into this field, however, the most important is how to develop data management skills. Also, I learned about R programming language and got some materials I am already learning to develop my skills in this language. I enjoyed both the presented topics and the connection with others, where most of them professionals and similar-interest fellows. I could connect a lot and get to know others in social events. The summit is well-organized, topics are selected well, and understandable for someone not fully professional. The session 3B: Supporting Cross-Disciplinary Communities with Lifecycle Data Infrastructure, which I did not think about it before. It gave details and information about institutions and organizations. Moreover, the presenters explained the obstacles that research communities face in their FAIR data, the collaboration challenges of cross-community activities, and how inventions in product development can enable communities to normalize FAIR data practices.

The conference’s theme presents a very important angle in the data science field. I believe it is important to build and create channels to ensure access to data targeting communities as a core of such an approach, and the theme emphasizes that. Moreover, it is important to learn from experience and build on learned lessons in order to develop, so, it is a well-designed theme. In my opinion, there is no specification of what kind/s of communities, where data usage, accessibility and management differ by the community activities and scope of work.

I was impressed by the different approaches to using and managing data by the presenting institutions and originations. More interestingly, I noticed the difference in these ways between the US and EU institutions, I am more familiar with the latter where I live. In this summit RDAP 2024, I learned and benefited from many aspects, approaches and perspectives on many topics, to mention some (Research data in scholarly communication, Approaches to the curation of simulation data, Audio-visual data curation, FAIR, Enabling connection throughout the data ecosystem, Incorporating web archiving into software curation workflows) which will help me in my endeavors as I plan to do PhD studies in network and geospatial topic, where I need data management skills and knowledge.

I am Kelley Klor, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a recent MLIS graduate from the University of Missouri, and a soon-to-be Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama. My interest in the RDAP conference was born out of the interest in ensuring best practices for data accessibility and, ultimately, data sovereignty. As a member of a Native American tribe and an early career archival professional, I am especially interested in Indigenous data sovereignty because of the historical erasure of Indigenous people, and the importance of data gathering and use in Indigenous communities.

I enjoyed the content of the Community-centered initiatives session. Specifically, I found the lightning talk, “The ‘I’ in FAIR: Developing a Variable Standards Finder for Researchers” by Heather Barnes and Sabrina McCutchan insightful. Similar to Barnes and McCutchan’s data needs of the HEAL project, Indigenous data must be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). However, in many Indigenous communities, data needs simply aren’t met because the community has little control over their own information. One example of data important to Indigenous communities is the data about boarding schools, which is often scattered among various repositories and inaccessible. Learning about variable standards in this presentation was thought-provoking because such standards could be extremely useful when they are culturally appropriate and applied to Indigenous data.

Beyond the sessions, I thought this conference was well-planned and offered great opportunities to network and forge meaningful connections. I enjoyed the conversations I had with my conference buddy, Danica, and our mentor, Nina. I also enjoyed the intentional social time, such as playing virtual Scattergories, which was a first for me.

I found the time spent attending the conference was valuable, and although I missed a few sessions that I wanted to attend due to work, I am excited to watch the recordings and continue learning more. Thank you for this opportunity and wonderful experience!