Love Data Week in the time of COVID-19: A content analysis of Love Data Week 2021 events

Abstract

A primary role for data-focused librarians is building community through traditional and novel modes of in-person outreach, including consultations, training, and themed events such as Love Data Week. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic rendered in-person events impossible. However, Love Data Week 2021 persisted in an online format, allowing data-focused librarians a unique chance to initiate outreach to geographically dispersed constituents. In this study, the authors investigate the nature and context of Love Data Week 2021 events to gain insight into current research data services trends, as impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The authors collected qualitative information about 242 Love Data Week 2021 events across 37 organizations and coded the information using manual content analysis. This paper reports on descriptive results from the content analysis, including the dominant topics across events (software or digital tools, research data management, and service or product awareness) and the primary mode of events (workshops). The authors discuss implications for future research on Love Data Week and themed weeks in general as successful modes of outreach, community-building, and as venues for tracking emerging trends in the context of research data services.