[Rdap] Tracking data questions/requests

Joe Hourcle oneiros at grace.nascom.nasa.gov
Wed Aug 28 11:22:05 EDT 2013



On Wed, 28 Aug 2013, Williams, Sarah Christine wrote:

> Hello,
>
> As data services are expanding at the University of Illinois, we are thinking about how we track data questions/requests.  We are interested to learn more about how other libraries are tracking data questions, for example:
>
>
> *         Do you systematically track data questions?  Is this library-wide or just within a specific unit in the library?
>
> *         What system do you use to record data questions?  Is it the same system used to record reference questions or is it separate?
>
> We would appreciate hearing about practices and experiences at other libraries.


I'm not sure that I'd really say that it's a practice for libraries in 
particular, but depending on what sort of questions you're fielding, they 
might be suitable for crowd-sourced answers.

In some of the programming language & web development toolkit communities, 
they'll have multiple venues for questions, with one being Stack Overflow:

 	http://stackoverflow.com/

(they'll specifically mention on their website what tag to use, so they 
can more effectively monitor the site for questions that need to be 
answered).

Recently, the group that runs Stack Overflow set up a new site for 'open 
data'.  (unfortunately, there's still the question of exactly what is 
'open data')

 	http://opendata.stackexchange.com/

It's a pretty low-traffic site right now, but it might pick up as one of 
the current redesigns for data.gov is taking the approach of linking to 
them for people to ask questions.

-Joe

(and I should mention that I'm currently one of the moderators on the site 
... as is one of the data.gov people, and a phd student from Austria)



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