Development of a Lightweight Dataset Catalog with Digital Commons

Authors

Claire Warner, The Rockefeller UniversityFollow
Amy Reese, University Of Alabama At BirminghamFollow
Marla Hertz, University Of Alabama At BirminghamFollow

Document Type

Poster

Publication Title

Medical Library Association 2025 Conference

Abstract

Many academic libraries maintain dataset catalogs to make the research data produced by their institutions more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). These catalogs use a variety of approaches to gather metadata for dataset records and may be hosted on one of several platforms. Our approach is to develop Python code and leverage APIs to locate relevant datasets, then harvest and clean the associated metadata. The cleaned metadata is manually curated and enhanced before being added to the Dataset Catalog. We employ the hosted institutional repository Digital Commons to display the dataset records. Combining API harvesting and automated data cleaning with the batch upload feature of Digital Commons yields efficient ingestion of many dataset records, allowing us to prioritize manual curation and enhancement of the dataset metadata to make it FAIRer. This methodology is ideal for institutions unable to dedicate a large personnel team or significant technical resources to launching a Dataset Catalog. The resulting dataset catalog currently contains over 100 records from multiple repositories. This project was supported through the Data Services Continuing Professional Education (DSCPE) program.

Publication Date

5-1-2025

College or School

UAB Libraries

Comments

Liberty Chapter version presented on October 9, 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Supplemental Associated Link

https://site.pheedloop.com/event/mla25/sessions/SESJL6HY6AZ84FXIH

Recommended Citation

Warner, Claire; Reese, Amy; and Hertz, Marla, "Development of a Lightweight Dataset Catalog with Digital Commons" (2025). Libraries Professional Work. 32.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/libraries-pw/32