Data management

Collecting and disseminating information is an important role for agencies and a central part of many agency missions. Yet with increasing pressure to cut costs and modernize services, finding the most effective and economical ways to manage growing volumes of data is vital.

Data management is a complex process, requiring both backend and client-facing considerations for processes and systems. LAC Federal works internally with your agency to ensure data is discoverable and available to your entire user base. 

Metadata and catalog support

Developing and maintaining an accurate bibliographic record is essential for relevant discovery, making metadata the foundation for modern libraries and information centers. 

LAC Federal provides full-service skills and experience for cataloging and metadata planning and implementation requirements:

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  • Strategic planning and assessment of user requirements to ensure relevance and efficiency.
  • Understanding of common international standards such as RDA (Resource Description & Access) and the Library of Congress Classification Scheme. 
  • Development of local taxonomies or thesauri for unique cataloging requirements.

The many nuances of identifying and recording data attributes and relationships requires LIS (Library & Information Science) training and experience which LAC Federal delivers with every person we place on a data management and discovery project.

Past performance examples for data management

National Agricultural Library (NAL)

At the NAL, LAC Federal has supported development of NAL’s Ag Data Commons repository for USDA-supported research data. We help data contributors create standardized, descriptive metadata and support workflows into the agency’s enterprise data inventory and data.gov website. The Ag Data Commons metrics show sustained growth in usage, submissions and citations. LAC Federal librarians also helped to implement and optimize their GIS (geographic information system) open source database.

US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics

The US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics maintains an open access repository called ROSA P (Repository and Open Science Access Portal) for USDOT-funded research. LAC Federal performs content management services, migrating content and ingesting new records into the ROSA portal. An LAC metadata librarian is solely responsible for cataloging all urgent digital submissions based on Dublin Core and RDA standards.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) & US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) joint project

Researchers at the USDA and the NREL piloted an IT platform for gathering and exchanging data for rapid sharing and modeling. This data exchange requires intensive harmonization of inconsistent data and metadata standards. LAC Federal gathers and documents workflow requirements, performs and coordinates user testing, develops testing plans and documents results. We use an Agile software development environment, Scrum meetings, Git-based version control and GitHub’s issue tracking application. Data types and formats we work with include GaBi, SimaPro, openLCA, ecoSpold1, ecoSpold2, ILCD, JSON, olca and zolca. Tools used to convert, clean and analyze data include Python and Structured Query Language (SQL) to query database tables within Apache Derby.