Research Data Services Expanding Across Northeastern’s Global University System

By Michal Biletzki

As Northeastern University’s Global University System continues to grow, so does the range, scope, and reach of services offered by our library. As part of this evolution, the Research Data Services (RDS) team has expanded from three to five staff members, plus two co-ops, to better serve the data needs of our global community.

Whether assisting a patron working at one of our global campuses or a student working anywhere in the world, this team flexes schedules to meet people where they are, providing high quality support with professionalism, flexibility, integrity, and an overriding commitment to serving the Northeastern community.

One of the key members of the RDS team is Kate Kryder, CAMD’19, the Data Analysis and Visualization Specialist. Kate supports over 1,000 individuals annually, assisting faculty with data analysis for their academic research, guest lecturing on coding (R, Python, JavaScript, CSS/HTML), and helping students prepare for conference presentations. Whether it’s guiding graduate students on their poster designs or consulting with undergraduates on coding projects, Kate’s expertise is invaluable. She even helps with personal passion projects so that individuals can bring home a fully researched and detailed family tree for Christmas.

“I help people with anything that is visual that can be graphs and diagrams. These can be posters for conferences or presentations. It can be a Mother’s Day card.” — Kate Kryder

Kate’s work extends across the global Northeastern network, including:

• working with faculty on the London campus, teaching Tableau and Python classes for incoming students. With the sun is rising in her location, the students are ready for lunch while they learn how to work on data systems that are part and parcel of their current and emerging work environments.
• providing design critique (“crit”) for for the students in the CAMD Information, Design, and Data Visualization grad program on the Vancouver campus.
• working with students in home countries as far as India and Myanmar via email and Zoom, and with students on co-ops in Europe via Skype to (among other things) figure out minute differences between the American version of Excel and the Italian one (they use semi-colons where we use colons!).
• giving intensive crash courses to the faculty and student researchers in the Nahant, Mass., Marine Science Center, covering all the design they need to know (typography, color, grids, layout, and more) in 30-40 minutes.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Kate and the RDS team, and their flexibility and dedication, the Northeastern University Library continues to fulfill its mission: to leverage its unique strengths and extend them as far and wide as possible across the global university system and around the world.

To learn more, visit Northeastern Research Data Services.