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Trusting Your Data: My Journey Through Six Steps of Data Management Enlightenment

In this narrative, I reflect on my transformative experience with data management, starting from the initial chaos of merging six databases in 2006 without proper data cleansing or standards. Each of the six pivotal steps—Innocence, Hubris, Anger, Depression, Acceptance, and Enlightenment—highlighted the challenges of dealing with error-laden data and illustrated valuable lessons about trust and the importance of documentation. By sharing my journey, I hope to provide insights for others grappling with the complexities of managing data effectively.

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Trusting Your Data: My Journey Through Six Steps of Data Management Enlightenment

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Presentation Transcript

  1. The 6 Steps to Data Management Enlightenment or… Can I Ever Fully Trust My Data?

  2. In the beginning… • Implemented EMu in 2006 • Brought together 6 different databases • Did not clean data first • No central standards • Resulting errors needed to be cleaned …my journey began

  3. Step 1: Innocence

  4. Error: Parties duplicates • Parties to clean up, merge, delete, parse • Tony Williams party record • Split to show that one was a Photographer

  5. Error: Photographer migration • Complaints about strange photographers • Bad data creates bad data • Data entry errors? • Punctuation interpreted incorrectly Mrs. H.U. Silleck Isabella Edenshaw? Roy Phelps Study Collection – Dolls?

  6. Discovery • Tony William’s party record had been stolen! • By the question mark culprit:

  7. Step 2: Hubris

  8. Error: Standalone Parties • Found standalone Party records • Made no sense in context of database Adult Leisure Products Corporation

  9. Adult Leisure? Leisure? Adult?

  10. Discovery • 3 years later, reviewing legacy data for old loans • Filling in missing information • And I came across an old friend

  11. With a Google search…

  12. Step 3: Anger

  13. Error: Photographers • Happily replacing data like a good data manager • But there were unanswered questions

  14. Step 4: Depression

  15. Error: the human kind • Currently cataloguing Fragment collection • Thousands of small pieces of objects • Trying to fill out information

  16. Legacy database mimicked storage • But difficult to open • What could EMu tell us?

  17. Step 5: Acceptance

  18. Error: Caption mismatches • Publication information • Came from several sources • Number of errors

  19. Analysis

  20. Analysis

  21. Step 6: Enlightenment

  22. On your journey… • Assumptions can lead us down the wrong path • Legacy data is crucial, but not perfect • Use your experience – what else can help? • Document, document, document

  23. Kara Lewis Collections Information Program Manager National Museum of the American Indian lewiskm@si.edu Can I Ever Fully Trust My Data?

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