Current Projects
Current research projects are listed alphabetically by project title. Use this drop-down menu to sort by researcher last name.
Collaborative Research: DAT: From grant to commercialization : an integrated database which can trace, assess, and measure the impact of scientific funding
Abstract
This project will develop a freely available database that links Medline papers and U.S. patents, through identification of individuals who authored both papers and patents and analysis of citations between papers and patents. These patent-paper-author links will then enable identification of similar organizations and in some cases, science/technology field and geography. Co-authorship networks for scientists will also be prepared, annotated and made available on the Dataverse Network System (DVN), analogously to what has been done for inventors in the patent record (NSF proposal 0830287). This integrated database will enable researchers to investigate how 1) grants enable papers, 2) papers influence patenting, and 3) scientific knowledge ultimately diffuses and influences the entire patent record. All data will be made available and linked to tools at the Harvard-MIT Data Center.
Principal Investigator
Vetle TorvikFunding
$445,165, National Science FoundationData Conservancy
Abstract
The Data Conservancy is a $20 million initiative led by Sayeed Choudhury at the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries. The five-year award, one of the first two in the NSF’s DataNet program, is building infrastructure for the management of the ever-increasing amounts of digital research data. The CIRSS team will receive approximately $2.9 million for their contributions to multiple aspects of the project. The Data Practices team (Palmer, Cragin, MacMullen, & Chao) is investigating expectations and requirements across the scientific communities served by Data Conservancy, establishing criteria for deposition, sharing, and quality control of data sets. The focus is on the ‘long tail of small science,’ and how to support collecting and sharing of the highly variable types of data produced by individual scientists and small research groups. The Data Concepts team (Renear, Dubin, & Sacchi) is developing formal terminology and identity conditions for fundamental data concepts. This work will provide the foundation for standardizing how Data Conservancy datasets are identified, described, related, and organized. The CIRSS research activities and other Data Conservancy efforts are feeding directly into two professional training programs at GSLIS—the Data Curation specialization in the Master's of Library and Information Science and the Biological Information Specialists master’s in the campus-wide bioinformatics program, as well as professional development in data curation principles, processes, and technologies.
Principal Investigator
Carole PalmerFunding
$2,900,000, National Science FoundationDefining and Solving Key Challenges in Microblog Search
Abstract
Microblogging services like Twitter are becoming an important part of how many people manage information in their day to day activities. As microblog traffic increases (Twitter currently sees about 50 million tweets per day) information management and organization will become keen problems in this area. The project will define the core problems in microblog search and propose solutions to these challenges in the form of both theoretical models and prototype search systems.
Principal Investigator
Miles EfronFunding
$45,563, GoogleDigital Collections and Content
Abstract
As efforts to integrate and federate digital resources proceed apace, we are learning more about the problems that emerge at different levels of scale and granularity. Building on prior work of the Digital Collections and Content project (DCC), we will investigate and implement a systematic approach that confronts these problems and offers robust means for adding value and improving access to existing digital aggregations.
Website
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/research.htmPrincipal Investigator
Carole PalmerExtending Data Curation to the Humanities: Curriculum Development and Recruiting
Abstract
Specific objectives are: 1. Develop and refine a humanities data curation curriculum. 2. Develop a network of internship sites at libraries, museums, digital archives and digital humanities centers. 3. Promote the role of LIS professionals in humanities data curation and expand the understanding of the role of digital data curation in humanities research. 4. Disseminate best practice reports and provide a model curriculum for other data curation programs. 5. Develop a model institute for delivering the curriculum as continuing professional development. 6. Deliver the curriculum to both new masters students and continuing professionals.
Co Principal Investigator
Allen Renear, Carole PalmerFunding
$892,028, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesHidden History of U.S. Telecommunications
Abstract
An archivally grounded research project on telecom system development between the 1870s and the 1950s.
Principal Investigator
Dan SchillerLAMP II
Abstract
Library Access Midwest Program, also known as LAMP (www.lisaccess.org) was launched in 2006 to address a severe regional shortage of library and information science (LIS) professionals from underrepresented groups. With support from IMLS, Midwestern LIS leaders have been successful in designing and piloting a model to promote LIS careers, with special emphasis on recruitment and retention of students from statistically and historically underrepresented populations. LAMP II will build on these initial achievements.
Principal Investigator
Rae-Anne MontagueFunding
$826,502, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesMeeting the Challenge of Language Change in Text Retrieval with Machine Translation Techniques
Abstract
In order for older texts to be searchable, contemporary English needs to be translated into language from various historical timeframes. The project will develop software that will let people enter a query in contemporary English, and search over English texts throughout history—from Medieval times to the present day. The project will mostly involve training statistical models that assign probabilities of the translation to a word or phrase in a target English language. The project will also look at how to display results in order to provide the user with the most probable answer to the query.
Principal Investigator
Miles EfronFunding
$49,429, GoogleMix IT Up! Youth Advocacy Librarianship
Abstract
Mix IT Up! Youth Advocacy Librarianship focuses on creating intentionally structured, youth-centered, engaged learning opportunities related to information technologies. Mix IT Up! enhances youth services by developing a library and information science (LIS) specialization that dovetails with community informatics and youth service in order to focus on systematically training librarians as youth advocates. Mix IT Up! actively recruits youth advocacy fellows from traditionally underrepresented groups in LIS - American Indian, Latino/a, African American, and working class - by providing academic and financial support. Fellows are placed in long-term youth advocacy projects that partner with community organizations serving youth. Fellows also engage with selected community affiliates and organizational participants in the Youth Advocacy Alliance (YAA). The alliance will: gain the services of emerging information professionals, including those from underrepresented groups; have the opportunity to apply for small amounts of funding in support of particular projects and/or travel; and be able to provide the youth in their organization rich opportunities for community engagement.
Website
http://mixituplis.wordpress.com/Principal Investigator
Rae-Anne MontagueFunding
$904,314, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesNarratives and New Media: Guiding Young People's Stories
Abstract
Principal Investigator
Carol TilleyNext Generation Digital Federations: Adding Value through Collection Evaluation, Metadata Relations and Strategic Scaling
Abstract
This project will investigate and implement a systematic approach to developing useful, meaningful, and usable digital collections. Building on the prior work of the IMLS Digital Collections and Content (DCC) project, the researchers will explore how to use the relationships between collection-level and item-level metadata in federated digital repositories to preserve content and make the content more useful for scholars and the public. The project will experiment with and test metasearch capabilities, and expand and improve the IMLS DCC with new IMLS-funded and other digital content and advanced search capabilities.
Principal Investigator
Carole PalmerFunding
$975,903, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesOpen Annotation Collaboration II
Abstract
The overarching goals of the Open Annotation Collaboration (OAC) are to facilitate to emergence of a Web and resource-centric interoperable annotation environment that allows leveraging annotations across the boundaries of annotation clients, annotation servers, and content collections, to demonstrate the utility of this environment, and to see widespread adoption of this environment. To this end the OAC has made available the draft annotation data model and ontology developed during Phase I. OAC Phase II focuses on directly engaging humanities scholars and involving existing collections of digital content that have well-defined communities of scholars interested in annotating such content.
Principal Investigator
Tim Cole, Larry Jackson, Allen Renear, Carole PalmerFunding
$362,00, The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationPreparing Future Faculty: Enhancing the Doctoral Program
Abstract
This project will enhance the GSLIS doctoral program by building a stronger research community within the school for the study of information in society, including policy, economic, and historical dimensions. Project goals include enhancing the doctoral program curriculum; connecting the research community to the wider world of librarianship; and attracting and supporting thirteen diverse students, especially those from underrepresented groups, with a specific focus on recruiting doctoral students who will teach master's students capable of becoming future leaders in public, academic, and school libraries.
Principal Investigator
Linda C. SmithFunding
$990,234, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesPreserving Virtual Worlds II
Abstract
The original Preserving Virtual Worlds project, funded by the Library of Congress’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP), investigated what preservation issues arose with computer games and interactive fiction, and how existing metadata and packaging standards might be employed for the long-term preservation of these materials. PVW2 will focus on determining properties for a variety of educational games and game franchises in order to provide a set of best practices for preserving the materials through virtualization technologies and migration, as well as provide an analysis of how the preservation process is documented.
Principal Investigator
Jerome McDonoughFunding
$785,898, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesSharing Success: Training Educational Leaders for Youth Services Librarianship
Abstract
Eight scholarships will be offered over three years to outstanding and diverse students admitted to the Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) program. This program will provide continuing education by offering outstanding library practitioners the opportunity to continue their education in a topic related to youth services, and by providing institutional support for these students to develop continuing education workshops for others. The two central goals of this project are: 1) leaders in the youth services library profession will provide quality continuing education for their practitioner peers in school and public libraries, and 2) leaders in the youth services library profession will meaningfully contribute to best practices and research in this field.
Co Principal Investigator
Christine Jenkins, Carol TilleyFunding
$364,925, Institute of Museum and Library ServicesSoftware Environment for the Advancement of Scholarly Research (SEASR)
Abstract
SEASR fosters collaboration by empowering scholars to share data and research in virtual work environments. This eases scholars’ access to digital research materials, which currently are stored in a variety of incompatible formats.
Principal Investigator
John UnsworthFunding
$359,860, The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationStructural Analysis of Large Amounts of Music Information
Abstract
Structural analysis of music (formal analysis) is one of the most fundamental analyses performed by music researchers, usually preceding any other types of analysis because it provides the overall view of the piece. Its importance is reflected by the fact that the course on formal analysis is often one of the core music undergraduate music curricula with several major textbooks on the subject. The main goal of formal analysis is to find similar sections within a piece of music and labeling these section such as, ABA and ABCB'A or with further analysis these sections can be marked with predefined labels such as Intro, Verse, Verse, Bridge, Chorus, Verse, and Outro (popular music) or Introduction, Exposition, Development, Recapitulation, and Coda (sonata form). Thus, the formal analysis is useful in classifying different genres of music and it can be used to compare different styles of composition within a composer’s works or between composers. It can also be used to understand historical influences over time and location. By analyzing large sets of music, new discoveries can be made about these questions.
Principal Investigator
J. Stephen DownieFunding
$99,476, National Science FoundationTowards Evidence Based Discovery
Abstract
Vast quantities of electronic information provide a unique opportunity
for scientists identify candidate solutions for grand challenges as
scientists, policy makers, and students have never had access to more
electronic information than they do today. The goal in this research
is to develop new text mining methods that are consistent with the
manual processes that experts currently used to resolve contradictory
and redundant evidence. Both discovery and synthesis are difficult
activities even for people, so a socio-technical strategy will be
required to achieve this goal.
Key outcomes from this study will be:
- A longitudinal study of manual discovery and synthesis behaviors of a diverse network of faculty, policy makers, and students.
- Advances in natural language processing methods that automatically identify concepts and relationships, detect entailment and paraphrasing, and generate multi-document summaries.
- A collection of gold standards that reflect diverse and realistic information needs that will drive further research in natural language processing.
- Increased understanding of the degree to which text mining methods assist in discovery and synthesis activities through a series of qualitative and quantitative user studies.
- A set of "next generation" scientists who are well prepared to explore complex research questions that span disciplines.
- Increased awareness and support for the "human side of discovery" through courses, and workshops.
Website
http://ebd.lis.illinois.edu/Principal Investigator
Catherine BlakeFunding
$449,317, National Science FoundationYoung People's Voices about Comics in Reading Guidance Literature, 1938-1955
Abstract
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