Documentation

I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the AAFC news – seven research facilities closing with many job cuts.  Research facilities with over a century of research, data, reports….  Oh you all know where I’m going with this!!!  Yup!  Where is all that data?  Gone?  Hidden?  Maybe in some repository?  I don’t know!

What I do know is that we, as an industry and as data researchers and archivists, need to seriously think about that data!   Lacombe Research Centre – 119 years of research – many of these in the field of meat science!  If anyone works in that area – you are well aware of the changes we’ve made over time in the quality of our meats – how we evaluate and grade – a lot of that research was developed at Lacombe!   As a beef geneticist who worked in the meat science field, I am crying if that data is not saved or at least documented!  Uh-oh I said that magic word “document”.

I’m trying to stay optimistic and hopeful – but when I attend industry related meetings and the primary question that arises is “What data?” followed by “Where is the data?” I get scared!  The only reason I am familiar with the type of research and data that was collected at Lacombe is because of my research background.  If I was to run a search today for pork grade data – ok – let’s try it for giggles.

Hmmm…  ok I should add Canada and see if that changes anything….

Yup!  As I suspected nothing but reports – no data!  So – that initial question of “What data?” followed by “Where is the data?” is not being answered!

Two points I want to make here:

1. Data is NOT easy to find – nothing showing up for Lacombe information?   If you didn’t know this data existed you wouldn’t know to ask about it.  The classic “If you don’t know you don’t know!”  So – if we don’t know it exists then it’s ok to let it go?  Maybe I shouldn’t worry about the data that’s been collected for the past 119 years?
2. This is the MAIN problem that we are trying to solve with both ADC and the CS-DCC!   A catalogue of data sources to search across.  A place to visit to determine IF the data exists – followed by where the data exists.  BUT if we don’t know it exists or if it disappears then….

Let’s wake up and acknowledge that our data is VALUABLE and needs to be preserved!

Let’s hope I am wrong and the data collected at the seven AAFC facilities slated for closure will be preserved and FAIR!

You’ve seen this word thrown around a lot!  Data about data.  Data Documentation.  Information about your data.  So many different ways to define “metadata”.

If you’ve been reading our blog posts – you know that we are STRONG advocates for data documentation!!  I, personally, am a STRONG believer in metadata – without it – all that time and money that was put into data collection has been flushed away.  Without that crucial documentation or metadata – the data you or your team collected is useless since no one can understand what the data is – let alone understand how to use it.

Let’s add another word now – Standards.  Yes!  Believe it or not there are many different metadata standards out there!  I would argue that most scientific disciplines have an established metadata standard.  Now – as a researcher – are you familiar with these?  Did you know there was a metadata standard for your field of research?

At Agri-food Data Canada, we are aware that this can be very overwhelming – so that’s one of the primary reasons we encourage you to use the Semantic Engine to document the data that you collect – as you would collect it.  Let’s work at documenting the data in a machine readable/actionable format – then we can translate it to the metadata standard that your field of research uses.  WOW!  Easy peasy?  Ok there’s some work involved in creating crosswalks across metadata standards – but first and foremost – let’s NOT fret about what the best or recommended metadata standard is in your field – let’s DOCUMENT that data – and cross-walk it over later.  Let’s be honest – most of us forget to document and need to go back months later and remember what we did!  So document now in an easy to use format – Semantic Engine – and then come talk to us about how to cross-walk to the metadata standard in your field.

Hang on!  One more word today:

INTEROPERABILITY!   

Let me just drop that one here – isn’t this part of what I’m rambling on about today?