Where’s the Data? How libraries improve data discoverability

Every February, the global data community celebrates Love Data Week, hosted by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). This year’s theme, “Where’s the data?”, invites us to think about the journey data takes, from collection to analysis, storage to preservation. 

Why finding data matters

In today’s digital world, data is everywhere. Researchers often upload data online for others to reuse, but there’s no single place to store it, so finding the specific data needed can be a challenge.

Looking for data can feel like searching under rocks; it's there, but you must turn over a bunch of rocks before you find what you need, if you ever find it at all. When available data is difficult to find, it ends up forgotten or lost, becoming unusable. 

How libraries help

Despite these challenges, there are ways to increase the findability of data. This is where libraries play a key role. Just as we curate book collections, we curate datasets by adding keywords and metadata (information about the data) to improve discoverability. 

At the University of Waterloo, all data deposited in Borealis, the University’s Dataverse repository, is carefully reviewed by the Libraries’ data curation team. We check that files are complete, open correctly and include clear documentation. 

We also check the data and documentation against author-created metadata in Borealis and enhance metadata where needed. This includes adding keywords to boost discoverability on the web and in data repositories.

Why it matters 

By curating data, the Libraries ensure that when someone asks, “Where’s the data?”, the answer is: right here – accessible and ready to use! 

Learn more about Borealis and how to deposit your data on Waterloo’s Borealis website.