As 2023 drew to a close, the Data Literacy Program (DLP) completed a number of tasks and said goodbye to an era. At the end of December, L. Meghan Dennis wrapped up her work with the program at the conclusion of her 3-year postdoc. We’re sad to see her go but looking forward to new possibilities as we assess what the program looks like with a single postdoctoral researcher. Before we get there though, what did the DLP duo do in quarter four of 2023?
We set broad goals for the last quarter of 2023. Those were to create a plan for the transition to a single postdoctoral researcher and to complete tasks that required the DLP duo working as a team. We did this by making progress on various Data Stories (with lots of editing) and Meghan getting the Data Story guide for her awesome game, FAIR Finds, ready for testing.
Here’s what the portal to FAIR Finds, looks like
FAIR Finds, is a Data Story in our Interactive Series. It debuted for alpha-testing at the First Conference on Public Archaeology where folks had a lot of fun playing the game. We shared FAIR Finds with a few more colleagues this quarter and Meghan added some awesome materials to get this game–focused on Findable Accessible Interoperable and Reusable data–to the pre-print stage so we can share it with even more audiences.
The middle of the quarter saw our annual November writing push! Paulina and Meghan wrote and edited a few academic-oriented publications that explore archaeological data literacy in a different way. Hopefully, we’ll get these finished soon and into the publication pipeline. That way we can contribute to the academic work on archaeological data literacy as well as doing outreach.
Another major step for us was inviting people to peer review our two Solo Series Data Stories. These are available as pre-prints and open for anyone to peer review and use. We’re gathering those reviews and hope to improve those Data Stories for a full publication soon. In the meantime, take a look at them here and here. And if you’re feeling extra generous, fill out an open peer review of your own!
Check these pre-prints out right now!
Another thing we did was explore and post on social media platforms other than the one formerly known as Twitter. Specifically, we shared articles and the second annual running of the two Creative Series Data Stories on LinkedIn and Facebook. Paulina used her personal LinkedIn to share updates about the DLP broadly and link to the events on Facebook.
We leveraged the AAI Facebook page to share the prompts from It’s All in the Wrist (Bones): Archaeological Data as Artistic Inspiration as part of National Arts and Humanities Month in October. The next month (November) we shared the prompts for 30 Days to an Article: Archaeological Inspiration for Your Writing coinciding with National Novel Writing Month.
While we lack the reach we had on Twitter, these other platforms provide robust data on engagement. These data are important for us as we consider the value of social media for sharing the work we do with the DLP. That’s also a great reminder, if you don’t already, to follow the AAI and Open Context on Facebook!
Here’s a taste of what our social media presence looked like recently
We did a lot of cool stuff this quarter and closed out a pretty successful 2023. Without Meghan, Paulina will be continuing the work of the DLP. Paulina’s been wrapping up her PhD so only working part time, which is why she’s hanging around for a bit longer. That means you’ll have lots of regular DLP work to read about so keep checking the AAI News for updates!
