Data Services

University Libraries assists the campus community with finding and managing data for their research needs. From creating project workflows and managing data to finding secondary data and preparing data for sharing, we're here to help.

Our services

Finding and curating data

Our data librarian can help you find the right data for your project needs and look over your data before deposit.

Make an appointment for help with your data
Managing data

Our data librarian can help you with your data management plan (DMP) whether you are just getting started or have a plan that's ready to review.

Make an appointment for help with your DMP Request a DMP review

Data workshops

Workshops Enhance your understanding of data management topics by attending one of our upcoming workshops.

Find a data workshop
Videos Check out our playlist on YouTube for recordings of many of our recent data workshops.

Watch data education playlist
Data education Schedule an on-demand workshop about managing, documenting and sharing data for your department, class or lab.

Request a data workshop

Help, funding and tools

Guided help

Whether you are just starting your project or nearing the end, our data librarian will meet you wherever you are and guide you through the next stage of your project.

Beginning of project

Creating a project workflow.
Finding secondary data.
Identifying active storage solutions.
Identifying data needs.
Tips for setting up data structures for success.
Writing a data management plan (DMP).

Mid-project

Continuing data education through workshop attendance.
Documenting for reusability.
Redefining data needs.
Re-establishing data responsibilities.
Refining data structures (such as file naming conventions and tabular data setups).

End of project

Curating and documenting a final dataset.
De-identifying data for sharing.
Selecting a data repository.
Revisiting preservation and destruction responsibilities.

Make an appointment to get started

Data tools

The University Libraries provides access to the following tools to help you analyze data:

ArcGIS Pro
ArcMap
MATLAB r2020a
Minitab
NVivo
PyCharm IDE
R
R-Studio
SAP
SAS
SPSS Statistics 27
Tableau

Visit our Available Software page to find out which computers at Waldo Library have these tools.

You can find free training workshops on how to use some of these tools at datacarpentry.org/lessons. Training for data tools is not provided by the Libraries.

Funding for datasets

We have limited funding to add datasets to our collection. Complete a Request for Data Purchase form to find out if we can help you procure data for your research project. All requests for data are subject to our Data Purchase Policy.

Featured projects

Collections as data

Explore a collaboration with the University Archives as part of a student internship, culminating in datasets of the digitized South Haven Lighthouse Logs. Datasets can be used in the classroom as a secondary data teaching tool, for conducting primary source research, or as an example of documenting archival material for reuse.

Lighthouse Passing Vessel and Expenditures datasets
Preparing data for sharing

Review the Community Pandemic Accounts Project, an example of quantitative research prepared for data sharing. If you are considering sharing your data as part of a journal or granting mandate, consultations can be set up to discuss curating datasets, de-identification or choosing an appropriate data repository.

Community Pandemic Accounts Project dataset