Preparing a workforce to effectively reuse data

For centuries, library and information science professionals have been responsible for curating and preserving access to information resources. The last few decades have seen an unprecedented change in how new knowledge is created, disseminated and reused both within academe and industry, which provides new opportunities to intervene within the data lifecycle. This paper documents efforts to create a graduate educational program that produces alum who understand both the social and technical aspects of data analytics and who can effectively employ data to address questions in academe and industry. We share perspectives gained from initial interviews with project partners who have data needs, and report on how those needs directly informed curricula development of the Socio-technical Data Analytics (SODA) program at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois. We also provide a formative student evaluation of the program that was conducted to identify aspects that are successful, and those where further work is needed in order to help other schools who are developing similar programs that prepare a workforce who can effectively reuse data.