Data, Desert Islands, and Digital Dark Ages: Richard Marciano on Records and Data Management
On November 1, Dr. Richard Marciano, a professor at the University of Maryland, asked Sawyer Seminar participants, “If you were on an academic desert island, what data would you bring with you?” After hearing about his career, which included working as a computational environmental scientist and at a supercomputing center, studying electrical engineering, and most recently, working as a professor and director of data curation initiatives at UMD, it was clear that Dr. Marciano has had to make decisions like this one numerous times. He discussed moving between jobs or even universities and bringing relevant data sets and sources with him into these roles. Consequently, he lends a fascinating perspective to data curation and records management, as well as pedagogy in these fields. Dr. Marciano first came to UMD when they were seeking professors to transform their Masters in Library and Information Science program and change the way students were trained in digital and computational methods. To balance the fact that he comes from a science background, he intentionally built teams with members from archival and library backgrounds. One of the courses he introduced was an eight-week intensive program across disciplines that uses digital methods to work through data problems. In teaching, he uses tools like Jupyter notebooks to create readable, touchable, interactive environments and learning spaces that others can build upon. In addition, he suggests universities create certificate programs for continuing education in digital methods for humanities and archival professions to keep up with current trends. For example, major curators of data like the National Read More
