The advent of Big Data is radically changing academic research. The amount and variety of information produced and exchanged today, and the speed at which that information travels, are unprecedented. Large news text corpora, vast financial and population data sets, multi-layered geospatial data, and high-definition satellite imagery are now fair game for researchers in disciplines from the humanities to public policy to environmental science. 

The eDesiderata Forum will survey the landscape of “Big Data” electronic resources with an eye toward shaping CRL and NERL licensing agendas, and informing the data investment decisions of CRL and NERL member libraries. The Forum will focus on commercial and open access data in four areas: finance, public opinion, population, and geospatial information. In a web conference format, specialists in each field will discuss the major data types and sources, and shed light on trends like the commercialization of public data, the bundling of data and analytic services, and the growing disparity in data access between academic and business researchers.

Session I ~ 12:00 Noon-12:45 p.m. CT

Business and Financial Data  

Session II ~ 12:45-1:30 p.m. CT

Public Opinion Data  

Session III ~ 1:30-2:15 p.m. CT

Census and Population Data  

Session IV ~ 2:15-3:00 p.m. CT

Geospatial Data 

Wrap-up and Outlook ~ 3:00-3:15 CT