Help us celebrate Love Data Week, the international celebration of all things data related! Love data is a week dedicated to raising awareness and celebrating how data influences our world! 

This year’s theme is “Data: Agent of Change,” focusing on inspiring significant change through data, whether large or small, ranging from policy change, structural change, and social change! If you have not participated previously, now is the time! To help new and seasoned data users find data training and resources to move the needle on issues they care about, I have created a list of resources one could use to explore those issues. 

With February also being Black History Month, I wanted to bring attention to some of the research and data sources available covering issues with race, not only in the U.S. but worldwide.   

Check out these resources to learn more. 

U.S. Census Information on Race: https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race.html  

Race, Ethnicity and Marriage in the United States: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/07/interracial-marriages.html  

Pew Research Center Race and Ethnicity information: https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/race-ethnicity/ 

ICPSR is a data repository available to Villanova students, faculty, and staff. They host a variety of datasets that have been curated for ease of use, including many sets dealing with social issues. Two helpful features they offer are the Thematic Data Collections, which includes the Resource Center for Minority Data, and their Current Events in the Bib page, which shows publications dealing with current society issues and how data is being used in to broaden the scholarship. Explore ICPSR to find datasets available for secondary analysis to advance policy and social change. 

The International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology, IASSIST, recently released a webinar titled “A Conversation About Data on Race & Ethnicity Around the World” By Bobray Bordelon, Barbara Levergood, Kevin Manuel, Nigel de Noronha, Anja Perry, and Anne Zald. The panel was moderated by Alexandra Cooper and Deborah Wiltshire.

Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, recommends the book, Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein. “The book touches on why data scientists need feminism and how data can perpetuate intersectional inequalities. The book also provides examples of different projects like Data for Black Lives: https://d4bl.org/.” 

It is important to also highlight some of the inherent issues that are prevalent in data science. Beaudry Allen, University Archivist, recommends Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Noble to learn more about the systematic racism found in data science. 

For more information about different data resources Falvey offers check out the Falvey library blog. There were different data related posts throughout the week! Make sure to join us again next year for Love Data Week 2024, which will run from Feb. 12-16.

Follow and spread the word about Love Data Week 2023: @lovedataweek on Twitter and Instagram #lovedata23 

This event is hosted by ICPSR, a data repository that is available on Falvey Library’s homepage, Databases A-Z list. 

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Library.

By Jutta Seibert

At long last, Love Data Week is here! Every year the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, better known as ICPSR, hosts Love Data Week in February and invites the academic community to adopt datasets to show their love for data-driven research.

At its core, ICPSR is a data archive that offers a range of value-added services such as online analysis, educational programs, and data management tools. Students, faculty, and staff associated with Villanova University have access to the complete menu of services and archived datasets. Questions regarding ICPSR should be directed to the University’s official ICPSR representative, Social Sciences Librarian Nicole Daly.

The sheer size of the archive is difficult to grasp for anyone not familiar with ICPSR. However, finding relevant data is amazingly easy. Search terms are matched not just to variables or dataset descriptions but also to data-related publications. Most important of all, ICPSR is not just for political scientists and sociologists, as its name may imply; humanists and historians are among the scholars who deposit qualitative as well as quantitative data. ICPSR hosts self-published replication data sets through openICPSR. Keep this in mind for the next time a research grant requires you to share your data for replication purposes.

To show my love of data I adopted the Berry Slave Value Database. Choosing one dataset from the multitude of data available on the topic of slavery was not easy. So many options and so little time. In the end it came down to a choice between Dr. Berry’s dataset, which offered historical sale and appraisal prices covering the years 1797 through 1865 from ten U.S. states, and the data archived by Drs. Fogel and Engerman, which include historical sale and appraisal prices covering the years 1775 through 1865 from eight southern states. I chose to adopt Dr. Berry’s dataset, which was submitted through the OpenICPSR program. OpenICPSR datasets can only be analyzed by downloading them from ICPSR into statistical software, whereas many of the ICPSR curated datasets can be analyzed online on the ICPSR website. The Berry Slave Value Database features research data that Dr. Berry collected for her monograph The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, In the Building of a Nation, which is available at Falvey in print as well as electronically.

Falvey staff invites you to take a closer look at what ICPSR has to offer and to adopt a dataset this week whether you are a humanist or a social scientist. For more information about ICPSR and some of the other data resources Falvey offers, join us throughout the week in one of our lunch workshops. Join us online using the hashtag #LoveData23 to see how institutions around the world are celebrating Love Data 23.

Jutta Seibert is Director of Research Services & Scholarly Engagement at Falvey Memorial Library.

Next, Michele Gandy, GIS Laboratory Manager, Department of Geography and the Environment, will present a virtual workshop titled “Present Real-Time Analytics with ArcGIS Dashboards”  on Wednesday, Feb. 15.  REGISTER HERE.

A dashboard is a view of information and data that allows you to monitor events, make decisions, inform others, and see trends. ArcGIS Dashboards enables users to convey information by presenting location-based analytics using intuitive and interactive data visualizations on a single screen. Join Michele Gandy, GIS Lab Manager in the Department of Geography and the Environment to learn how to create these informative dashboards with your own data.

Finally, Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, will present a virtual workshop from 12–1 p.m. titled “Introduction to Data Visualization” on Thursday, Feb. 16 . REGISTER HERE.

In this introductory workshop to data visualization, participants will gain an understanding of the process for making good visualizations. Data visualization is a vital part of data analysis as we conduct our research, but accurate and readable charts are also important for conveying information to our colleagues, students, or other audiences. In this introductory workshop, participants will review best practices, online resources, and core design concepts for creating basic data visualizations. Participants will learn about various tools for choosing chart types whether you’re trying to visualize a relationship, comparison, hierarchy, or process.

By Nicole Daly 

Join us for Love Data Week 2023! “Data: Agent of Change” starts February 13. Learn more at https://myumi.ch/ICPSRlovedata23. #LoveData23 

If you haven’t participated before, Love Data Week is the international celebration of data. The theme this year is “Data: Agent of Change.” Love Data Week 2023 is about inspiring your community to use data to bring about changes that matter. Policy change, environmental change, social change…we can move mountains with the right data guiding our decisions. This year we’re focused on helping new and seasoned data users find data training and other resources that can help move the needle on the issues they care about. 

Find events and activities happening locally and virtually around the world: Love Data Week 2023 events and activities. 

Don’t forget to check out and follow all of the social media posts from different institutions using the #LoveData23 tag! Feel free to join in by posting stories and photos about how you use data using #LoveData23 tag!

Meanwhile check out these data resources available through Falvey!

• ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan)
  • Provides access to archived social science data and data-driven learning guides designed for the classroom. Includes information about data management and curation services available to member institutions. (A free ICPSR account is required to download data. The account must be created on campus.)
• Qualitative Data Repository for qualitative and multi-method data.
  • Archives and publishes data generated through qualitative and multi-method research methods. Provides guidance for managing, sharing, citing, and reusing qualitative data. Villanova’s QDR membership offers a range of user support services to facilitate the storing and sharing of data.
• Pew Research Center
  • The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and social science research; by reporting news and analyzing news coverage; and by holding forums and briefings. It does not take positions on policy issues.
• Statistical Insight (ProQuest)
  • Offers indexing, abstracting, and selected full text of statistical publications from U.S. state and federal governments, business and research institutes, and international material from the UN, OECD, EU, etc. Some tables are available in GIF, XLS, CSV, and other formats. 

This event is organized by ICPSR, a data repository that is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

By Nicole Daly 

Love Data Week 2023 is only four weeks away! 

February 13-17, 2023, marks the annual international celebration of Love Data Week! This year’s theme is “Data: Agent of Change,” focusing on inspiring significant change through data, whether large or small, ranging from policy change, structural change, and social change! If you have not participated previously, now is the time! Learn more at https://myumi.ch/ICPSRlovedata23. #LoveData23

Let’s help new and seasoned data users find data training and resources to move the needle on issues they care about. It is easy! 

Here are 10 simple ways to get involved.

1. Follow @lovedataweek on Twitter and Instagram.
2. Attend one (or more!) of the Love Data Week activities virtually from wherever you are. Check out the calendar of events. New events are still being added so check back soon!
3. Host your own event. Want it added to the calendar? Submit your events and we’ll add it! Event ideas include:

                    Data management and sharing workshop

                    Finding data demo with your favorite data archive(s)

                    Participate in ICPSR’s yearly Adopt a Dataset Program 

                    Highlight impacts of recent local data-driven research

                    Share an activity or project for teaching with data

                    Host a data-thon where teams combine, analyze or visualize datasets on a key topic

                    Pick a crowdsourced project at a site like Zooniverse and host a data contribution party 

4. Recognize colleagues for their participation in Love Data Week activities and events with a Love Data Week-specific Certificate of Participation.
5. Post your own Love Data Week activities on social media with the hashtag #lovedataweek23.
6. Use a cool Love Data Week background graphic as your Zoom background or screensaver.
7. Download, print, and share Love Data Week stickers with friends, students, and colleagues. |
8. Have a data trivia contest with your team, office, staff, classroom, students, or family – and tell us what happened. (If you’re following us on social media, you’ll be able to see our daily trivia questions during Love Data Week.)
9. Spread the word about Love Data Week 2023 to maximize participation and creative events.
10. Sign up to receive Love Data Week update emails to get the latest news on activities and posts!  

This event is hosted by ICPSR, a data repository that is available from the Falvey Library homepage, Databases A-Z list.

Nicole Daly is Communication Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.