RAC TKN Task Force

May 7, 2015

Meeting Notes

Present: Ann Scholz, Betty Ambler, Akiema Buchanan, Carol Paszamant, Enid White, Andy Everett, Jessica VanDenBoagaert, Leighton Christiansen, Louise Rosenzweig, Peggi Knight, Renee McHenry, Sandy Brady, Cindy Smith, Sue Sillick, Laura Wilt, Katy Callon, Karen Perrin, Skip Paul, Mitch Ison.

Leni Oman, Chair; Kathy Szolomayer, Notes

Agenda

  1. Roll call
  2. Review/Approval of minutes from April –approved for posting
  3. Task Updates:
  4. Research reports:
  5. Technical Page guidance update – may have final draft of guidance at or just before the meeting – Sue
    Sue displayed the original form, updated with instructions added that were created by Maggie Sacco and Renee McHenry. Sue will send it out for review; please let her know of any changes or corrections that are still needed. Hyperlinks do not work in form fields so Sue is correcting to display links so folks can copy and paste. Renee is going to put together an example of a completed form. Sue asked for any comments or questions and a few were offered. Next steps: After the form undergoes final review, it will be distributed to RAC, and it will eventually be posted on the SCOR/RAC website.

Sue then displayed and gave an overview of the revised form that has some new fields added; instructions are also embedded into this form, if they were known (a couple of fields are not used/understood so might be recommended for deletion). The arrangement of the form is changed somewhat from the original, partly for space saving and partly to move associated fields together for clarity. There are active links in some of the field headings. There is a separate field for URLs/PURLs – Sue would be interested in whether the group likes that or would prefer it be in the supplementary notes field. Carol likes that as a separate field, partly to remind folks to add that information. Laura commented that it would be good to be able to link the report and the data from it, and have that represented on the form; this will be more important as we move more into data curation. Data links (doi or other type of link) may have to be added later and oftentimes data would be curated separately from the report. Perhaps add a data URL field next to the report URL field? Leni suggested talking to Mary Moulton about this. The data group within this TF (Andy, Leighton, Curtis, Mary et al.) will look at this and weigh in with a recommendation for Sue. The data link is most likely going to be a requirement in a few years, but it would be good to get this represented on the form now.
Sue asked for comments/questions and Leni wondered if the form will be clear enough that research managers understand all the fields like PURLs? Perhaps a supplementary form or a LibGuide with more explanation would be helpful and Renee thought that information might be located with the example form, as a convenience. Enid asked if it would be better to add the doi in box 16 of the form, or in the bibliography of the report itself. Laura asked if it would be a problem to have it in both places. The issue could be that if there are many datasets, it could crowd up the form – but the form could indicate that the data is also cited in the bibliography rather than listing all the links on the form.

  1. Report Distribution – pending update of the FHWA directional letter – Leni
    Leni has just sent Mary Moulton the guidance recommendations for comment (draft copy attached below this paragraph). No update on the FHWA directional letter yet. Leni will follow up with Dawn Vanlandingham after this meeting and if there’s an update will submit it to be included with the meeting notes. Leni asked Skip if the guidance draft should be sent around to RAC leadership now or when it’s done. He said it might be nice to get comments now in case they would inspire changes to the guidance.
  1. Data survey findings – Andy et al
    There have been more responses to the survey – 25 in total. Results of the survey on Data Management Plans & Curation can be found at the link below. Please be respectful of contributors when referencing responses. Published/shared information should focus on the aggregated summary of the individual responses.

    Leni went through the survey to show some of the responses, and asked Andy to give a thorough summary at our next meeting.
  2. Calendar beta test – Laura, Maggie, Renee
    The beta test is not started yet. Functionality is working but there are problems transferring the calendar to the WTKN website, even though both sites are WordPress based, according to Laura. She is not able to predict when the beta test will actually begin, but the problems are actively being worked on.
  3. Research management networking needs – no update. This is one of the projects that was included as a potential task under the support for RAC Task Forces.
    There is a pooled fund related to this topic and Leni reported that there are common needs being identified for managing research by study members; Steve Hanson at WSDOT is analyzing needs, etc.
  1. Discussion – recommendation for the acronyms task below (which has been updated)*
    Katy commented that when new people start at MDT, she tries to provide information about what acronyms mean, and she wondered if there would be a way to organize them – for example, TRB stuff, modal stuff, etc. Leni had a question about the brochure – is it being used? Some folks had not seen the brochure before. Skip said there is an AASHTO publication of acronyms, but it is for purchase, not freely available (AASHTO Transportation Glossary, 4th ed., 2009, information at: ). Lots of states have lists, as well, relevant to their organizations. Maybe there should be an attempt to collaborate on these efforts. Leni asked who has lists in their organizations and responses were: WSDOT, Illinois, MnDOT, Oregon, Nevada (out of date), Mississippi (in research manual), and NJ (maybe?). Some are maintained by Communications offices, some by libraries, and some by research. Leni asked for a volunteer to contact Mary to see what NTL is doing – and Sue said she would.
    Another question is whether the brochure is still needed? Natassja may have some information on analytics.
  2. Regional TKN news – Lynn reported (via Leni) that ETKN has published a new LibGuide on Transportation Sustainability, intended for practitioners in operations, planning, and management. It lists innovative strategies and solutions for achieving environmental sustainability. Carol gave a brief tour of the guide. Sandy added that it is a general guide. It can be found here:
    Leni asked where the inspiration for the LibGuides is coming from. Carol said from the TKNs, based on hot topics/user requests. What type of outreach is being done to design the guides, Leni asked. Carol said that is problematic. When she tried to get input from practitioners, not much was provided. Sandy added that she sees the LibGuides as a place to start research, not the ultimate, comprehensive source of information on a topic. Leni said she will send the link to AASHTO, as she did with the emergency response one. It is hoped that will expand the reach of the information. Laura said it is really important to get feedback from users, to find out what is valuable and useful to researchers. Leni suggested that when the next topic is brainstormed, bring it to this group to help get the business outreach figured out. Laura mentioned the WTKN LibGuide in the works on sustainable public transportation, with a western emphasis, and input is welcome. Folks can contact WTKN Chair Katy Callon (); Carol had a few suggestions for topics.
  3. Other news of note – The National RAC meeting is in July and Leni will be in touch with more information.

*Acronyms

The RAC Admin Task Force Subcommittee on the SCOR/RAC Website is reviewing content on the website. There is an acronyms brochurethat contains a list of acronyms. Issues discussed are summarized below. There was also discussion of the need to align the map of organizations on the cover of the acronym brochure with another map (I don’t have that link).

A. There was some discussion of the potential scope of the Acronyms document, which is currently limited to Highways, aside from listing other CRP programs such as Transit, Airport, Freight, and HazMat.Sue stated she was planning to see if theCRC Council would prepare Map of Organization documents for the other modes. This would help to make sure we have a more comprehensive list of acronyms. The highway map link is:

B. We discovered that there is another Acronyms and Abbreviations document on the SCOR/RAC website at: We need to consolidate this page with the Acronyms brochure in some way. This will be taken up in a future meeting.

C. There was also discussion of the format of the brochure—if it should be PDF (for printing) or HTML (for online viewing). This issue was tabled pending resolution of other issues about the brochure.

I am aware that many agency websites have lists of acronyms and that DOT libraries maintain several of those. Is there a definitive source of transportation acronyms the SCOR/RAC website could point to? If so, what site is that? If not, is there adequate cause to develop this and where might it be housed? I know this subject is familiar to many of you and would value your thoughts and recommendations on the direction to take and how to resource that work.