RAC TKN Task Force
April 5, 2012
Meeting Notes
Attendees/Absent: AJ Million, Hank Zaletel, Jane Minotti, Mary Moulton, Jeff Mixter, Andy Everett, Daniel Yeh, Laura Wilt, Lynn Matis, Janet Coles, Louise Rosenzweig, Sue Sillick, Lisa Loyo, Dawn Vanlandingham, JT Rabun, Ida Van Schalkwyk, Betty Ambler, Sena Loyd, Sandy Brady, Ron Curb, Bob Cullen, Moy Biswas, Frances Harrison, John Cherney, Anita Vandervalk, Camille Crichton-Sumners, Leni Oman, Chair
Also Absent: Rita Evans, Dale Steele, Karen Perrin, Cynthia Gerst,
Notes: Kathy Szolomayer
Discussion items
Review Minutes from last month -- No comments received
1) NTKN Update – info from the meeting of TKN Chairs – Leni & Regional Chairs
a) Working group: TKN TF thoughts on the NTKN? Not discussed at this meeting. Still awaiting a little more information on how the NTKN Strategy will evolve and how we can contribute.
b) Logo competition – Feedback on the pipe concept for a logo received mixed reviews. The intent to show different streams of information and their interconnectedness was well received but the image didn’t fully capture that. Instead, the TKN Chairs are conducting a competition for a logo. The notices will be distributed through the regional TKN, the TKN Task Force, and, hopefully, the AASHTO Public Information Directors (NTPAW).
c) More meetings are scheduled for TKN chairs
2. Feedback/input for the RITA/TRB Workshop: Better Traffic and Safety Results through Information Sharing: A Workshop (see addendum at end of notes for workshop description and details)
Mary Moulton described some information gathering for the workshop in an e-mail to Leni, as follows:
A component of the TRB Workshop will be to showcase examples of collaborative efforts to share information in traffic or in safety across agencies or institutions. The NTL requests good examples of information sharing activities that could serve as exemplars for attendees? What are efforts that the TKNs can model or to which we can contribute? This initiative could be in the form of a website, but does not have to be.
Members of this group are asked to share this request with colleagues in their organizations, the regional TKNs, etc., and to please send examples to Amanda Wilson at NTL.
Frances Harrison said they are still gathering names of potential attendees and trying to strike a good balance. Please send any additional names to her or Jennifer Rosales ASAP.
Task Updates – Task Leads -- this is time to let us know of key activities and products and what you need from the TF.
3. Publication format – Laura and Dawn
Laura presented the template that Dawn put together for publications from this group, which includes visuals on 1st page, headers/footers and the tagline; room will be left for a logo when we decide on one. With this template we are trying to achieve a more consistent, “branded” look for our documents. Still re-sizing photos. Database/Repository paper in the template and Portal paper is ready to be formatted. Laura will send the repository paper in the template to the group for comments. Initial reaction is the template looks good; it is attached here.
Please look it over and send comments to:
Dawn Vanlandingham () and/or Laura (
4. Research Reports
a) Distribution – Sena
Scheduled a Doodle poll to see when folks are available to meet and hopes to have something to report next month. She has a good group but if others are interested, contact Sena to join up.
b) b. Format – PMQ has asked us to take responsibility for this task – any volunteers to lead this?
No update
c) Quality - RAC-CUTC paper (attached). Next step – to circulate this to RAC and UTCs to identify any additional concerns we’ve missed and to begin collecting successful practices.
Leni reported that the document will be going out to RAC leadership for review. Collecting information on practices that will help get to better management of report quality. Will also look at bibliographic issues regarding thesis formats, etc.; soliciting feedback from this group.
Daniel remarked that many of Wisconsin’s research is done by private contractors/consultants, and wondered how that community might react, since this issue is being examined by RAC/CUTC -- how will this apply to contractors and consultants if that community is not giving input? Perhaps the document should have separate sections directed at university researchers and private sector researchers? Leni asked that we keep the private sector’s issues in mind as we work through this task, and she will add that to the “next steps” list.
A chat box note from Camille stated that she thinks the contractors and university issue papers should be separate.
5. Portal paper – AJ/John/Bob
Completed – pending final format and distribution plan
No updates from Bob; John and A.J. not on the call. Distribution for this paper (and repository/database paper) could possibly build on marketing plan Lynn and Kathy are working on for the video.
6. Webinar organization – Laura and Jeff
Possible calendar format: WY State Library http://will.state.wy.us/ldo/planningcalendar.html.
Laura reported that she and Kendra Levine discussed using SharePoint for the site but decided to use WordPress, which is the platform for the WTKN website. Nothing specific to report on that, so far. Jeff is doing some brainstorming and will wait for the go-ahead from Kendra to start looking at WordPress. They need to set up the site and then people can contribute ideas.
Sue wants to be involved in the calendar part of this, as a rep of the Collaboration and Coordination task force. Laura has received good feedback from engineers at ODOT that the calendar would be a useful tool. The site should be set up to incorporate information from lots of different sources.
Recap: Some issues to consider as we develop a concept for making this information available:
· What exactly do we want to be able to access (upcoming webinars, new publications, archived webinars, proprietary webinars, slides and handouts from unrecorded webinars, etc)?
· Some sites - such as TRB - are available to some, but not all, of the community. The TRB links that are listed in the document are the public pages, containing links to the actual materials. What's the best way to handle this type of information?
· How do we determine the permanency of the links (are links to some archived webinarsactive for a set time)? How do we overcome this (or not)?
· Who can/will add content? How?
· It would be nice to have an area for suggestions for future webinars.
· On another note - I monitor TRB and NHI for free webinars that offer Professional Development Hours (PDH) for our engineers. Is this a feature we would like to include?
7. Climate Change Clearinghouse – Guidance document update and usage reporting – Mary Moulton
No updates on the document; new material is being sent to the clearinghouse, however.
Leni asked that the new recipient at NTL be announced so that folks know to whom to send
materials.
8. Data Management and the TKN – Andy, Frances and Mary
Mary reported this group has been meeting regularly to discuss what is emerging in this area, NTL practices, etc.; they also have reviewed “digital object identifiers” (DOIs). DOIs are persistent identifiers for dataset, for citing in research. DOIs help keep data accessible even if moved from one repository to another, so that citations do not have to be changed.
There are requirements at the Federal level for making data available to the public when it’s from publicly-funded research and several agencies are doing that, and assigning DOIs as part of the process.
Andy, Frances and Mary will produce a white paper on current/emerging practices and standards and will plan an event for the next TRB meeting (panel or some other presentation). They will probably start meeting twice a month to keep the momentum going.
Amanda and Mary are involved in the group of the 12 federal agencies managing scientific and technical data.
Access to research data in the 21st century – Leni is reading this now and it’s very helpful.
Leni mentioned that at the NCHRP 20-90 panel on managing transportation information that she attended yesterday, the group noted a disconnect in communication between the library and data communities; they are glad for the work being done to improve the interaction.
9. 2012 International Transportation Research Information Access Workshop – Lisa or Jennifer Rosales
Lisa said they are trying to coordinate time for a planning phone call. Agenda and goals are being discussed. Leni volunteered this group to help if needed.
10. Future meeting times will remain: 8:30 am Pacific Time, 60 minutes
11. Update on NCHRP 20-90 – Anita Vandervalk
This agenda item was postponed. The panel met yesterday and several members are in transit today – and we’re all integrating our thoughts.
12. New issue proposed for discussion: data and survey information access. Question posed to Frances after the meeting was if this is included in the work she, Mary and Andy are doing.
Written updates
Communication plan for video - Lynn and Kathy have completed the final draft of a short survey seeking TF members’ input regarding elements of the video marketing plan. The draft will be put into Survey Monkey format and the plan is to send it out the week of April 16th, with responses due 2 weeks later. After analyzing the results, Lynn and Kathy will formulate a plan for publicizing and marketing the video, which they will share with this group. Implementation to follow.
Research Report Depository: Dale says that the group has learned much. They will be working on our final products: a summary statement of what we have learned and what the field needs to do; and instructions for depositing reports with the NTL and other depositories. Theyhope to get these done before too long.
Other: Bob Cullen made an announcement about next week’s Transportation Librarians Roundtable , entitled Data Management from the National Science Foundation: What, How and the Librarian’s Role. Dr. Sylvia Spengler is the featured speaker.
Meeting adjourned at 8:28 am Pacific Time on an upbeat note, accompanied (or drowned out) by someone’s telephone “hold” music.
Next meeting: May 3, 8:30 am Pacific Time
See below for Addendum: Better Traffic and Safety Results through Information Sharing: A Workshop
Better Traffic and Safety Results through Information Sharing: A Workshop
In an ideal world, data, information and knowledge produced by research, and lessons learned by practitioners are quickly made available and used to improve practice and yield better results. New research is initiated to address the most pressing issues and is well informed by prior work. Is this cycle of information sharing and knowledge transfer working as well as it could? This workshop looks at this question for the area of trafficoperations and safety. It brings together multiple communities: researchers, practitioners, information providers and library/information managers to assess the current state of affairs and identify opportunities for collaboration that could result in reduced duplication of effort, cost savings and improved information access for traffic and safety researchers and practitioners.
Transportation professionals working in the traffic operations and safety arena have access to a vast array of information at their fingertips. Paradoxically, they still spend a considerable amount of time finding information of relevance to their work. Too often, researchers and practitioners proceed without the benefit of knowing what has been done before. The explosion of information and multitude of sources makes it extremely challenging for people to get the information they need, when they need it. The transportation library community has made great progress in establishing consolidated catalogues of published literature and increasingly, multimedia and data resources. In addition, multiple web portals and wiki sites have been built around particular topic areas. However, a great deal of valuable information is not captured within national catalogues – e.g. unpublished or “grey literature” such as PowerPoint presentations, and data sets produced as part of research projects. In addition, there is overlap across existing web portals and there is no easy way to find out where to go for the most relevant and current information.
Workshop participants will learn about current information sharing initiatives, and develop a realistic set of strategies for improved collaboration. The results of the workshop will be an Action Plan including both immediate steps as well as initiatives that can be undertaken over the next 1-3 years.
Conference Scope
Data / Research / Technology TransferScope: Type of Information being shared / State, regional, local and private sector Real-Time Traffic Data, Archived Traffic Data
Crash Data / Research Reports – FHWA, NHTSA, TRB/NHCRP/ SHRP, state DOT-funded
Consider research plans, programs that will fund this type of research, survey results, research facilities and data / Guidance documents, Training Materials (text, video, audio), conference and training event schedules, conference presentations, expertise directories
Challenges to be Addressed / - Rights management
- Metadata supporting multi-purpose datasets
- Barriers to sharing (e.g. not invented here syndrome) / - Maximizing value from existing research – avoid recreating the wheel
- Tightening the link from research to deployment / - Avoiding duplication of effort – fully leverage existing materials
- Tightening the link from research to deployment
Collaboration Opportunities: Library / Information Professionals and Information Producers/ Providers / Portal Development Kit
Data Tagging/Controlled Vocabularies
…
Collaboration Opportunities: Cross Organizations / Research Program & Project Management (RPPM) SharePoint Site – RITA/FHWA/AASHTO
Communities of Interest
SAFETY.DATA.GOV
…TRB Committees and AASHTO Committees
Future Actions / Research Needs Statements
TRB Sessions: LIST/Data Section/Safety/ITS/DFD STF
…
Conference Attendees:
Target30 total, even mix for the three tracks (Data, Research Tech Transfer) representing:
- information producers/providers
- information consumers/users
- library/information professionals