Archer Library works to provide support for Graduate students through a variety of supports including workshops on topics of importance to researchers. One such workshop included the Using Data in Evidence Based Policy Development workshop held in February 2020. Presented by Archer Library and the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS), the workshop included three sessions covering a spectrum of data and research needs.

The morning workshop, part of the JSGS’s Policy Workshop series for government employees, was facilitated by Cara Bradley (Research and Scholarship Librarian), Kaetlyn Phillips (Interim Data Librarian), and Jennifer McConnell-Nzunga (Regina Research Data Centre Analyst). The forty attendees were primarily Provincial Government employees and had a wide range of interests in data management, sharing, and retrieval.

Cara Bradley started the day with a session on Research Data Management which included covering the research cycle, cleaning data, storing data, and sharing data. Kaetlyn Phillips discussed and demonstrated accessing and sharing Open Data in Canada. This session showed common Open Data Portals and discussed how to potentially create user-friendly open data. Jennifer McConnell-Nzunga introduced the Regina Research Data Centre and went over the application process for Provincial Government Employees. In between each session, Lin Gallagher from JSGS facilitated a question and answer discussion. Based on attendee feedback, the session was positively received and praised for covering the diverse needs of the attendees