HASS Community Data Lab

The Challenge

During the consultation for the Trove Researcher Consultation Report, researchers said that HASS is not a single entity, and the researchers who fall in this domain have a multitude of diverse questions and approaches when interrogating data contained in archives and collections. However, it was recognised that establishing a way to pool approaches for research could be of value, enabling researchers to use, re-use, and augment datasets in ways that enable additions and developments.

A number of suggestions during the consultation pointed to the need for a platform where tools, code and datasets that make use of data on Trove could be shared, organised and annotated by researchers. It would create a ‘collaboration layer’ on top of an improved Trove API.

The Response

The HASS Community Data Lab will enable the sharing of an increasing range of tools and datasets, provide environments for running the tools, and options for researchers to analyse and annotate datasets. It will be a platform that not only shares a number of instruments and infrastructures, but also provides governance and procedures that have protocols, and practices for managing and recording research as a process.

The HASS Community Data Lab will facilitate cross-institutional collaboration, enabling researchers to work collaboratively in groups and conduct open research.

It is being constructed in phases and will be extendable based on the needs of the research community. The project currently includes 2 phases, which will be delivered over 2023–2024.

Phase 1 will focus on Trove as a central data source. The HASS Community Data Lab will provide extensive documentation and examples of how to process data from Trove and other archives and collections using existing distributed research infrastructure available to Australian researchers. This will include ARDC Nectar Research Cloud computing services, publicly available data repositories such as Zenodo and Figshare, and workspace services such as GitHub and GitLab.

The HASS Community Data Lab will include a range of tools, such as:

• the Australian Text Analytics Platform
• the Language Data Commons of Australia
• the TLCMap.

Phase 2 will focus on data and analytics training guides.

Who Will Benefit?

• HASS researchers and all those interrogating collections and archives.

Target Outcomes

This project will produce a HASS Community Data Lab, containing datasets, tools and software, and training guides. It will be freely accessible by Australian researchers.

Key Resources

• Draft project plan.
• Trove Researcher Consultation Report