Texas Digital Library Dataverse Implementation Working Group Final Report

Abstract

Since September 2015, the Texas Digital Library (TDL) Dataverse Implementation Working Group (DIWG) has worked with Texas Digital Library staff to pilot and implement a consortial repository for small to medium-sized research data, as well as to develop policies and workflow documentation associated with a data repository service. Comprised of 14 librarians and technical staff across six universities and the TDL, the DIWG's charge was to "pilot test, assess, and launch a consortial repository for research data archiving and management," addressing costs and possible funding models, technical configuration of the repository, workflows and outreach, policy and governance, and metadata needs. The DIWG built upon the work of a predecessor group - the TDL Data Management Working Group - which evaluated multiple available data management platforms and recommended the use of Dataverse as a consortial service. The result of the group's work is the Texas Data Repository (https://data.tdl.org), a platform for publishing and archiving datasets and other data products created by faculty, staff, and students at Texas higher education institutions. The repository is built in Dataverse and is intended for sharing small- to medium-sized datasets from any discipline.