Alex Ball — Activities
This page contains a record of my activities since November 2005, when I joined UKOLN. Listed below are:
- Tasks I have completed
- Important meetings and conferences I have attended
- Events relevant to my professional development
For the technically minded the information below is also available in iCalendar format and as an Atom newsfeed.
Ongoing duties
In the gaps between the occasions and events listed below, I am getting on with various day-to-day duties, including the following:
- Developing the University of Bath Research Data Archive
- Maintaining the records of datasets registered in the University's Current Research Information System and visible through the Research Portal
- Reviewing deposited datasets
- Developing an RDM adventure with a colleague from Stellenbosch University
- Maintaining the GW4 RDM Triage Tool (available to members of the GW4 institutions via the GW4 Portal)
- Co-chairing the Research Data Alliance Metadata Interest Group and maintaining the Research Data Alliance Metadata Standards Catalog
So far
By default this page displays my most recent activity. You can view different date ranges using the form below.
Here's what I did between 14th October 2018 and 14th October 2024.
| Date | Entry |
|---|---|
| 2022-08-23 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.9).
Software
|
| 2022-07-13 |
Attended a webinar, ‘Datasets in the Wild’, part of Jisc's Digital Research Community (DRC) Monthly Meet-Up programme, which discussed ways for institutions to track the data output of their researchers and secondary uses thereof. Speakers included Nick Sheppard, Mick Eadie, Beverley Jones, Nick Syrotiuk, Chris Gibson, Holly Ranger and Nushrat Khan.
General
|
| 2022-05-25 |
Attended seminar by Nahory Hernandez Mancilla and George Neville on the newly formed Neurodiversity Community at the University of Bath and how the Library can better support and understand the lived experiences of those who use its services.
Staff Development
|
| 2022-05-25 |
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 6.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2022-05-20 |
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
|
| 2022-04-29 |
Attended webinar ‘Repositories and Beyond – The Evolving Landscape’, part of the Libraries after Lockdown: Embracing Disruption programme, which discussed the current repository and research information management landscape and direction of travel. Speakers included Leigh Stork, Tamsin Burland, Gareth Cole and William Nixon.
General
|
| 2022-04-05 |
Submitted reviews of papers submitted to the 2022 International Digital Curation Conference.
General
|
| 2022-03-04 |
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
|
| 2022-03-04 |
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 5.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2022-02-21 – 2022-02-24 |
As one of a team of three instructors, taught ‘Version Control with Git’ to students from Edinburgh University as part of a four-day hybrid (in-person and online) Software Carpentry workshop.
The Carpentries
|
| 2022-02-15 |
Gave a presentation, ‘Work, Research Data and Play: the RDM Adventure Game’ by myself, Samuel Simango and Nushrat Khan, at an online workshop on using games to support researchers. Two other serious games were presented at the event.
General
|
| 2022-01-27 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.3), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
|
| 2022-01-20 |
Participated in an online meeting between the Technical Advisory Board of the Research Data Alliance and Working/Interest Group Chairs.
RDA
|
| 2022-01-18 – 2022-01-20 |
As one of a team of four instructors, taught ‘Version Control with Git’ to astronomy students from Cardiff University as part of a three-day hybrid (in-person and online) Software Carpentry workshop.
The Carpentries
|
| 2021-12-14 |
Attended webinar, ‘Everyday Ableism: A collective approach to challenging disability discrimination’ led by Tracy Walsh (University of Hertfordshire) and Abbie Jenkinson (College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London).
Staff Development
|
| 2021-12-10 |
Attended seminar by Oli Schofield, Doctoral Engagement Manager, on the work of the University of Bath Doctoral College and the ways in which it engages with doctoral students.
Staff Development
|
| 2021-11-19 |
Attended virtual workshop looking at the implications of UKRI Open Access Policy changes for persistent identification of research outputs hosted by institutions.
General
|
| 2021-11-16 |
Attended seminar by Catherine Bailey, Deputy Director of Student Services, on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the University's new and returning students following 18 months of lockdowns and interruptions to normal study at school, college and university.
Staff Development
|
| 2021-11-03 – 2021-11-11 |
Attended the Eighteenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance held virtually and internationally, at which I gave a presentation on the latest release of the Metadata Standards Catalog.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2021-11-03 |
Launched version 2.1 of the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog. This reintroduced the authenticated write functions of the REST API, added filtering (searching) on collection endpoints, and extended the data model to include Linked Data namespaces for metadata schemes.
RDA, Web Development
|
| 2021-10-05 |
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
|
| 2021-09-30 |
Attended a workshop run by Tom Mason, the University's Social Media manager, with Library Research Services on how best to engage with researchers through social media.
Staff Development
|
| 2021-09-22 – 2021-09-24 |
Attended virtually the 15th European Conference on Games Based Learning, presenting the RDM Adventure Game in the 9th International Educational Games Competition, and chairing a session on Movement and Board Games.
General
|
| 2021-09-03 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.2), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
|
| 2021-07-07 – 2021-07-10 |
Attended virtually the Open Repositories 2021 conference, picking up a lot of useful ideas and information about recent developments in the repository world.
Staff Development
|
| 2021-05-14 |
Attended an online training session on how to run The Carpentries sessions entirely online.
Staff Development, The Carpentries
|
| 2021-05-06 |
Spoke to the committee responsible for the Norwegian recommendations on licensing and reuse of research data on consequences of recommendations for licensing data.
General
|
| 2021-04-20 – 2021-04-23 |
Attended the Seventeenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance, based in Edinburgh but held virtually, at which I gave a presentation on registering metadata converters in the Metadata Standards Catalog.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2021-04-14 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.8).
Software
|
| 2021-04-08 |
Attended training session on how to run online workshops using the Juno Live platform.
Staff Development
|
| 2021-03-08 |
Released the Research Data Management Adventure (at Stellenbosch) for use as a training tool for postgraduate and early career researchers.
Software
|
| 2021-02-26 |
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
|
| 2021-02-25 |
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 4.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2021-02-01 |
Launched a reimplementation of the University of Bath Archives' Cabinet of Curiosities website, now with an administrative backend.
Software
|
| 2021-01-28 |
Attended virtually a meeting of the Data Accessibility Initiative team to review feedback on the University's draft policy.
General
|
| 2021-01-25 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.1), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
|
| 2021-01-19 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.2).
Software
|
| 2020-12-18 |
Attended online workshop on using games to support researchers. Around ten serious games were showcased; there were also talks on transferable skills in regular games, and whether and how serious games intended to be run in person can be run online.
General
|
| 2020-12-03 |
Attended meeting with colleagues about support the Library offers to EndNote and LaTeX users, my interest being in the LaTeX support aspect. As a result of this meeting, a new LaTeX support mailing list was set up.
General
|
| 2020-12-03 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting summarising the year's developments in quiz form.
Staff Development
|
| 2020-12-01 |
Released the Research Data Management Adventure (at Bath) for use as a training tool for postgraduate and early career researchers.
Software
|
| 2020-11-09 – 2020-11-12 |
Attended the Sixteenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance, based in Costa Rica but held virtually, at which I gave updates on progress with the Metadata Standards Catalog and Recommended Metadata Element Set.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2020-10-19 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.1).
Software
|
| 2020-10-15 |
Attended the Researchfish Interoperability Workshop, discussing whether and how to run another pilot bulk upload of dataset information into ResearchFish, and what other interoperability targets to address.
General
|
| 2020-10-09 |
Gave a presentation, ‘Towards a metadata Rosetta Stone: The RDA MIG Metadata Element Set’, at an online seminar organised by the Research Data Alliance RDM in Engineering Interest Group.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2020-09-17 |
Attended webinar in support of the RDA Virtual Plenary based in Costa Rica.
RDA
|
| 2020-09-09 |
Launched version 2.0 of the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog. This was a complete rewrite of the underlying code and data model, replacing hard-coded and pattern-matched authority terms with configurable folksonomies, and including a more standardised read-only REST API and comprehensive unit testing.
RDA, Web Development
|
| 2020-07-08 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about the Registered Service Provider Programme.
Staff Development
|
| 2020-06-06 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.7).
Software
|
| 2020-05-15 |
Participated in ad-hoc workshop on tools to support creating and preserving stand-off annotations of research data files.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2020-04-23 |
Attended the Researchfish Virtual Data Sharing Workshop, discussing plans to allow and control how data is shared by researchers and funders.
General
|
| 2020-04-01 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about implementing the new consortia membership model and details of the upcoming member meeting.
Staff Development
|
| 2020-04-01 |
Attended the Research Metadata Schemas Working Group meeting as part of the virtual RDA Fifteenth Plenary.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2020-03-26 |
Attended joint session of the Research Data Management in Engineering Interest Group and the Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ Data Interest Group as part of the virtual RDA Fifteenth Plenary.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2020-03-23 |
My article, ‘Metadata for Better Data’, was published in Catalogue and Index, the journal of the CILIP Metadata and Discovery Group.
Metadata
|
| 2020-03-23 |
Received notification that my 24×7 talk proposal, ‘Hold that thought: DOIs and Early Access to Datasets’, had been accepted for the Open Repositories 2020 Conference, though the conference itself was postponed to 2021.
General
|
| 2020-03-02 |
Submitted article, ‘Metadata for Better Data’, to the journal Catalogue and Index, published by the CILIP Metadata and Discovery Group.
Metadata
|
| 2020-02-17 – 2020-02-19 |
Presented a lightning talk, ‘The Tombstone Protocol: An Undertaking for Unfortunate Events’, at the 15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC20). This talk was a runner-up for the best lightning talk prize.
Staff Development
|
| 2020-02-05 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Member Meeting discussing proposed changes to the membership model.
Staff Development
|
| 2020-02-04 |
Adapted script that performs specific data quality checks on records selected for consideration in the REF 2021 return, so that it also flags up when changes have been made subsequent to the last manual review of the record.
Software
|
| 2020-01-27 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.0.1).
Software
|
| 2020-01-20 |
Submitted a 24×7 talk proposal, ‘Hold that thought: DOIs and Early Access to Datasets’, to the Open Repositories 2020 Conference.
General
|
| 2020-01-20 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.6.1).
Software
|
| 2020-01-16 |
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 3.2) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2020-01-15 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about data metrics badges, the DataCite Member Survey 2019, and proposed changes to the membership model.
Staff Development
|
| 2020-01-15 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.0), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
|
| 2020-01-08 |
Trialled staff development session on using R (part 2), given by Nushrat Khan.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-12-18 |
Trialled staff development session on using R (part 1), given by Nushrat Khan.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-11-19 |
Attended session on the principles of inclusive design, given by assistive technologists Tim Winship and Luiza Bell.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-11-06 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about account structure changes in Fabrica, and Scholix links.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-10-28 |
Submitted reviews of papers submitted to the 2020 iConference.
General
|
| 2019-10-02 |
Received notification that my lightning talk, ‘The Tombstone Protocol: An Undertaking for Unfortunate Events’, was accepted for the 15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC20).
General
|
| 2019-10-01 |
Submitted a report on the Research Support Games Day workshop to Piglet, the library staff newsletter.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-09-26 |
Wrote script to perform specific data quality checks on records selected for consideration in the REF 2021 return.
Software
|
| 2019-09-20 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.0).
Software
|
| 2019-09-13 |
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
|
| 2019-09-11 |
Attended the Research Support Games Day organised by Glasgow Caledonian University. I experienced sessions on using Python (or Xerte) for RDM games, ‘The Publishing Trap’ by UK Copyright Literacy, and ‘LEGO: Metadata for Reproducibility’ devised by the University of Glasgow.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-09-03 |
Attended a visit organised by the University Staff Development Group to the SS Great Britain Library, Bristol.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-09-02 |
Updated and expanded script to diagnose issues with the display of thesis records in the University's Research Portal.
Software
|
| 2019-09-02 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 1.2).
Software
|
| 2019-08-29 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the biblatex-bath package (version 3.1), for use with biblatex to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2019-08-28 |
Received confirmation and certification that I had qualified as a Carpentries Instructor.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-08-22 |
Gave an online teaching demonstration as part of the Instructor Training checkout process for The Carpentries.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-07-17 |
Gave a presentation, ‘A Generalist Perspective on Data Citation’, as part of a panel, ‘Data Citations: What Makes a Good Citation?’, at the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Summer Meeting. I attended remotely.
General
|
| 2019-07-10 |
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
|
| 2019-07-10 |
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 3.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2019-07-09 |
Participated in a Carpentries Community Discussion as part of the Instructor Training checkout process for The Carpentries.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-06-28 |
Submitted a lightning talk, ‘The Tombstone Protocol: An Undertaking for Unfortunate Events’, to the 15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC20).
General
|
| 2019-06-27 |
Attended demonstration of the Jisc Open Research Hub by Tamsin Burland.
Software
|
| 2019-06-24 – 2019-06-25 |
Attended Instructor Training for Librarians, organised by University College Dublin in conjunction with the co-located LIBER Conference, with a view to becoming a certified Instructor for Library Carpentry, Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry.
Staff Development, The Carpentries
|
| 2019-06-19 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting which included talks on PID OPIDoR and EzDOIMenu, which can perform mass minting/updating operations, and how the USGS uses DOIs to support impact assessment.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-06-10 – 2019-06-13 |
Presented paper, ‘Scratching that itch: Process improvement and problem solving in the University of Bath Research Data Archive’, at the Open Repositories 2019 conference.
General
|
| 2019-06-06 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.6).
Software
|
| 2019-05-28 |
Gave webinar on licensing research data to students on the PGcert in Biocuration course run by the European Bioinformatics Institute.
General
|
| 2019-05-22 |
Reconfigured server to restore the original ‘flattened’ versions of the UKOLN website to the Web, instead of relying on redirects to Web archives.
Web Development
|
| 2019-05-21 |
Attended and took the minutes of a workshop with representatives from the research data teams at Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter reviewing progress against the 2014 Green Paper (which explored the potential of the group), working on ongoing group projects, and discussing ways of supporting the broader Open Research agenda.
General
|
| 2019-05-14 |
Migrated the live instance of the Research Data Archive over to (a) a new server, (b) a different Linux-based operating system, (c) a new version of Perl, and (d) a new version of EPrints.
Software, Web Development
|
| 2019-05-06 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about usage statistics in DataCite Search, the statistics portal, and metadata provenance.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-05-01 |
Attended session run by Caroline Dangerfield (Head of International Relations) on the University of Bath’s Internationalisation Strategy.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-04-17 |
Contributed a post entitled ‘The Joint Meeting Of The Metadata Groups At The 13th RDA Plenary’ to the Research Data Alliance blog, in my capacity as an Expert grant holder.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2019-04-02 – 2019-04-04 |
Attended the Thirteenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance, at which I gave a live demonstration of the Metadata Standards Catalog.
Metadata, RDA
|
| 2019-03-29 |
Set up new server at Bath to host a new instance of the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog, since the previous version (hosted elsewhere) proved too unstable and hard to administer.
RDA, Web Development
|
| 2019-03-26 |
Submitted a report on the March 2019 EPrints UK User Group meeting to Piglet, the library staff newsletter.
Software
|
| 2019-03-14 |
Attended the EPrints UK User Group, where we discussed adaptations of EPrints to capture esteem, the new flavours of EPrints 3.4, capturing metrics, and future community development projects.
Software
|
| 2019-03-08 |
Katherine McNeill and Erin Wise from Harvard Business School interviewed me about how we keep track of datasets in the Research Data Archive and our institutional Current Research Information System (CRIS).
General
|
| 2019-03-08 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 1.8), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
|
| 2019-03-07 |
The paper proposal I submitted to the Open Repositories 2019 conference, ‘Scratching that itch: Process improvement and problem solving in the University of Bath Research Data Archive’, was accepted.
General
|
| 2019-02-19 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 1.1).
Software
|
| 2019-02-15 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 1.0).
Software
|
| 2019-02-06 |
Submitted new version of the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository, thereby taking over responsibility for maintaining it.
Software
|
| 2019-01-31 |
Gave a repeat of the presentation, ‘Serious Gaming: Creating a Research Data Management Adventure’, by myself and Samuel Simango, at the Library Staff Seminar ‘Have you got 20 minutes?’.
Software, Staff Development
|
| 2019-01-28 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.5).
Software
|
| 2019-01-17 |
Set up a new server to serve up redirects to prevent links to the UKOLN website breaking entirely.
Web Development
|
| 2019-01-16 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about the link-checker service, JSON support, search improvements and various fixes.
Staff Development
|
| 2019-01-11 |
Submitted proposal for paper, ‘Scratching that itch: Process improvement and problem solving in the University of Bath Research Data Archive’, to the Open Repositories 2019 conference.
General
|
| 2019-01-10 |
Wrote script to diagnose issues with the display of thesis records in the University's Research Portal.
Software
|
| 2018-12-11 |
Submitted a report on the 15th Stellenbosch University Library Symposium to Piglet, the library staff newsletter.
RDA
|
| 2018-12-05 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about the past, present and future of the Fabrica and API interfaces.
Staff Development
|
| 2018-12-05 |
Attended virtually a meeting of the UKRI Interoperability Working Group, specifically to hear feedback from the trial upload of research data information to ResearchFish and learn the next steps for this initiative.
General
|
| 2018-11-28 |
Attended virtually a webinar by Natasha Noy (Google) about the ideas behind Dataset Search, the open ecosystem for describing and citing datasets that they hope to encourage, and the technical details on how they went about building Dataset Search.
Staff Development
|
| 2018-11-19 |
With colleagues, met James Young from Arkivum regarding their new fully cloud-based version 5 offering.
General
|
| 2018-11-14 – 2018-11-16 |
Gave presentation, ‘Serious Gaming: Creating a Research Data Management Adventure’, by myself and Samuel Simango, at the 15th Stellenbosch University Library Symposium.
Software
|
| 2018-11-12 – 2018-11-14 |
Visited Stellenbosch University Library on exchange, along with University Librarian Kate Robinson. As part of this, gave presentation, ‘Supporting research data management at the University of Bath’ to Stellenbosch University Library staff.
Staff Development
|
| 2018-11-07 |
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about schema.org metadata and how it is used by Google Dataset Search.
Staff Development
|
| 2018-10-26 |
Submitted reviews of papers submitted to the 2019 iConference.
General
|
| 2018-10-23 |
Met with colleague Lawrence Lockton, and Adam Rehin, Karmele Hernaiz and Steve Byford from Jisc, to discuss the Jisc Publications Router and our experiences of using the Bulk Import mechanism for uploading items into Pure.
Metadata
|
| 2018-10-17 |
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the biblatex-bath package (version 2.0.1), for use with biblatex to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
|
| 2018-10-15 |
Provided presentation, ‘RDA Metadata’, for the GO FAIR/RDA Metadata for Machines workshop, but this was in the event presented by Peter Wittenburg as I was ill and had lost my voice.
Metadata, RDA
|