KeepIt course 2: Keeping Research Data Safe

KeepIt course module 2, Southampton, 5 February 2010
Tools this module: KRDS, LIFE
Tags Find out more about: this module KeepIt course 2, the full KeepIt course
Presentations and tutorial exercises course 2 (source files)

Keeping Research Data Safe (KRDS) is an approach to institutional costings and budgets for managing research data. It involves a model, a form, a survey of archiving organisations – some represented on this course – and, ultimately, a report.

First there was KRDS1, now expanded in KRDS2. How the two reports relate is helpfully explained by the project Web page. This course module preceded KRDS2, but in the week of the course the pre-report survey results from KRDS2 were published, so it was a timely opportunity to consider this work. BTW, should you notice mention of rat and rabbit heart, it’s not a reference to the course lunch, but a dataset found in one of the data survey responses

Welcome to our time capsule version of the KeepIt course, which is posted, for completeness, some time after the course has ended and some time after the resources were posted freely for all to use. In these blogs we will try to add a little more context to these resources, perhaps to make them slightly more accessible from an intellectual viewpoint.

[slideshare id=3197577&doc=keepit-0110cb-final-100216111747-phpapp02]

KRDS is presented by Neil Beagrie, who coordinated and led the project from the outset. Neil has a consultancy, Charles Beagrie Ltd, and many will know him for his work and many influential reports for JISC. A short aside in this presentation (slides 14-18) makes reference to one of these reports, the JISC Digital Preservation Policies Study.

Each tool covered in the KeepIt course involves a short group exercise designed by the presenter to give participants some practice in applying the tool. Here the groups used the KRDS2 benefits taxonomy to answer three set questions (slide 28, final slide). A version of the taxonomy, adapted to educational interests, and the exercise are described in Debra Morris’ blog on this tool.