Research Statement

My research interests are threefold: 1.) the data practices of researchers and how data is created, stored, managed, and shared, 2.) how libraries support digital scholarship, and 3) copyright implications for libraries when it comes to making irregular scholarship like datasets and cultural heritage objects available. 

Research Keywords

  • Research Data Management
  • Metadata
  • Intellectual Property
  • Digital Libraries
  • Digital Humanities

Presentations

  • Bromberg, P. and Cummings, R. (2022, May). How can we effectively communicate with elected officials? Panel presentation at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference. Layton, UT. Panel, Presented, 05/2022.
  • Roh, D. and Cummings, R. (2022, February). Building Community Partnerships through Digital Literacy Instruction. Presentation at the Sixth Annual Utah Symposium on the Digital Humanities (DHU6). Provo, UT. Presentation, Presented, 02/2022.
  • Bromberg, P. and Cummings, R. (2022, January). Utah Library Association Advocacy Training. Presentation for the Utah Library Association Membership. https://mediaspace.utah.edu/media/t/1_1bm1ni6v . Presentation, Presented, 01/2022.
    https://mediaspace.utah.edu/media/t/1_1bm1ni6v
  • Cummings, R. (2022, August). Building community partnerships through digital literacy workshops. Virtual presentation for the Association of College and Research Libraries. Presentation, Accepted, 11/2021.
    https://www.ala.org/acrl/onlinelearning/buildingco...
  • Cummings, R. and Roh, D. (2021, October). DH Lab Talks: Digital Matters. Virtual presentation at the IEEE VIS 2021 Annual Conference. Presentation, Presented, 10/2021.
  • Cummings, R., Rozum, B., Ozburn, L., Cummings, R., Payant, A., and Shelton, M. (2021, May). But were we successful? Using online asynchronous focus groups to evaluate library services. Presentation at the 2021 Utah Library Association Annual Conference. Presentation, Presented, 05/2021.
  • Coles, S., Cummings, R., Easton-Flake, A., Neatrour, A., (2021, March). Waking Up with the Woman’s Exponent. Panel Presentation for University of Utah Women’s Week Lecture Series and Events. Presentation, Presented, 03/2021.
    https://diversity.utah.edu/event/wake-up-with-woma...
  • Bromberg, P., Cummings, R., and Hull T. (2020, May). Advocacy and You: Why It’s So Important and How To Do It. Presentation at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, St. George, UT. Conference canceled due to COVID. Presentation, Accepted, 05/2020.
  • Mower, A., Christensen, R., Benevides, M., Amatangelo, E., Cummings, R., Steidinger, S., and Anderson, R. (2020, May). Seeing Copyright Clearly: Using and Creating Music and Videos for Your Library. Presentation at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, St. George, UT. Conference canceled due to COVID. Presentation, Accepted, 05/2020.
  • Rozum, B., Cummings, R., Ozburn, L., Payant, A., Bushman, R., and Shelton, M. (2020, March). Assessing Connections that Foster Compliance. Poster presentation at the Research Data Access and Preservation Summit. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Poster, Presented, 03/2020.
  • Cummings, R., Smart, E., and Neatrour, A. (2020, February). The Ballot in the Hands of Women: Turning 42 Years of Utah Women’s History into a Collaborative Digital Scholarship Project. Presentation at the Fifth Annual Utah Symposium on the Digital Humanities (DHU5). St. George, UT. Presentation, Presented, 02/2020.
  • • Cummings, R. (2019). Collections as Data. Presented for the Mountain West Digital Library Webinar Series. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Presentation, Presented, 11/2019.
    https://mediaspace.utah.edu/media/t/0_7bw8rd5o
  • England, M., Godfrey, I., and Cummings, R. (2019, May). Protospace, Repurposing Stack Areas at the University of Utah Marriott Library. Presentation at the Greater Western Library Alliance 2019 RSDD-CD Joint Meeting, Portland, Oregon. Presentation, Presented, 05/2019.
  • Cummings, R., Perry, A. and Dipasquale, E. (2019, April). Invited panelist on the Innovation on Research and Scholarly Communication Panel at the LYRASIS Leader’s Forum. Phoenix, AZ. Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 03/2019.
  • Cummings, R. (2019, February). Making Time for Text Mining Mining Texts. Presentation for the Marriott Library Faculty Research Workshop Series. Salt Lake City, UT. Presentation, Presented, 02/2019.
  • Cummings, R., Wittmann, R., and Neatrour, A. (2019, February). Text Mining Mining Texts. Presentation at the Fourth Annual Utah Symposium on the Digital Humanities (DHU4). Ogden, UT. Presentation, Presented, 02/2019.
  • Cummings, R., Callaway, E., and Neatrour, A. (2018, October). Future/Death of the Library: A Collaborative, Experimental, Introspective Dive into Digital Humanities. Presentation at the Digital Library Federation Forum. Las Vegas, NV. Presentation, Presented, 10/2018.
  • Cummings, R. (2018, September). Future Death of the Library. Faculty Research Review Presentation at the Marriott Library Research Retreat. Salt Lake City, UT. Presentation, Presented, 09/2018.
  • Nesdill, D., Cummings, R., and Maringanti, H. Stings from The Hive: Challenges of Launching the University of Utah Data Repository. Poster presented at the Research Data Access and Preservation Summit. Chicago, IL. Poster, Presented, 05/2018.
  • Cummings, R. (2018, May). In Libraries We Trust. President’s Speech given to 475 librarians at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference. Provo, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2018.
  • Mower, A., Miles, E., Steidinger, S., Cummings, R., Christensen, R., Sollis, L…. Anderson, R. (2018, May). Crafting a Fair Use Policy for Your Library. Pre-Conference workshop at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Provo, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2018.
  • Cummings, R. and Sollis, Liz. (2018, May). Why Brands and Libraries Matter. Presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference. Provo, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2018.
  • Cummings, R., Neatrour, A., and Callaway, E. (2018). Future Death of the Library: A Collaborative Topic Modeling Project. Presented at the Utah Symposium on the Digital Humanities. Utah State University. Logan, UT. Presentation, Presented, 02/24/2018.
    https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/dhu3/2018/session22...
  • Zottola, Ralph J. and Cummings, R. (2017, November). Research Data Sharing: Setting the Stage for Greater Openness. Poster presented at the Educause Annual Conference. Philadelphia, PA. Poster, Presented, 11/2017.
  • Cummings, R. and Miles, E. (2017, May). Myth Destroyers: Copyright for Digital Collections. Presented on the Copyright: Myth Destroyers Panel Presentation at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT. Panel, Presented, 05/2017.
  • Cummings, R. and Hatch, G. (2017, May). Why Digital Matters: Cooperative Scholarship at the University of Utah. Presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2017.
  • Cummings, Rebekah (April 2017). What came first, digital scholarship or the digital scholarship center? Lightning talk presented at the Data Science and Visualization Institute. North Carolina State University. Raleigh, North Carolina. Presentation, Presented, 04/2017.
  • Cummings, Rebekah (November 2016). Assessing Data Practices at the University of Utah. Poster presented at the Research Reproducibility Conference. Faust Law Library. University of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT. Poster, Presented, 11/14/2016.
  • Cummings, Rebekah. (October 2016). Game on! Managing Video Game Data at the University of Utah. Lightening talk presented at the Midwest Data Librarian Symposium. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Presentation, Presented, 10/17/2016.
  • Cummings, Rebekah. (September 2016). Determining Copyright for Cultural Heritage Materials. UALC Professional Development Day. Utah Valley University. Orem, UT. Invited Speaker. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/28/2016.
  • Cummings, Rebekah (September 2016). HILT: Building and sustaining a digital humanities center. Presentation to Digital Matters Lab Working Group. (Repeated October 2016 for Marriott Library Advisory Board). Marriott Library, University of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT. Presentation, Presented, 09/19/2016.
  • Cummings, Rebekah (August 2016). Level Up! Building data services at the Marriott Library. NISO Data Curation Virtual Conference. Invited Speaker. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/31/2016.
    http://www.niso.org/news/events/2016/virtual_confe...
  • Cummings, Rebekah. (June 2016). Research Data Services at the University of Utah. University of California, Irvine Lunch Lecture. Irvine, CA. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/24/2016.
  • Cummings, R., Rozum, B., and Nesdill D. (2016, May). Growing data in Utah: A model for statewide collaboration. Lightning talk at the Research Data Access and Preservation Summit. Atlanta, GA. Presentation, Presented, 05/2016.
  • Neatrour, A. and Cummings, C. (2016, February). Your digital humanities are in my library! No, your library is in my digital humanities! How libraries are enabling and engaging in digital humanities projects. Utah Symposium on the Digital Humanities. Utah Valley University. Orem, UT. Presentation, Presented, 02/26/2016.
    http://dhu1.byu.edu/abstracts/#uu5
  • Cummings, R. (2015, September). Ownership, intellectual property, and governance considerations for academic research data. Invited speaker for the DataFOUR professional development webinar series. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/25/2015.
    http://tinyurl.com/zqt72wj
  • Cummings, R. (2015, August). Introduction to Digital File Management. Presented at the Marriott Library All-Staff Meeting. Marriott Library, University of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT. Presentation, Presented, 08/2015.
  • Cummings, R., Smart, E., Thoms, B., & Fagerheim, B. (2015, May). Research Data Management. Presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, St. George, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2015.
  • Cummings, R. (2015, May). Who owns the data? Intellectual property considerations for academic research data. Presented at the GWLA/ GPN Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO. Presentation, Presented, 05/2015.
  • Cummings, R. & Morrow, A. (2015, May). Summary Report of ACRL Webinar on Emerging Technologies in Libraries. Presented at the Research and Learning Services Forum. Marriott Library, University of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT. (Repeated July 2015 at All-Staff Meeting). Presentation, Presented, 05/2015.
  • Cummings, R., Breiman J., & Fife, D. (2015, May). From Frenemies to Friends: Embracing Wikipedia. Presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, St. George, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2015.
  • Cummings, R. (2015, March). Do the Right Thing: Copyright, fair use, and rights assignment for librarians. ILEAD USA Utah. Salt Lake City, UT. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2015.
  • Cummings, R. (March 2015). Next Generation Data Services at the Marriott Library. Interview Presentation. J. Willard Marriott Library. Salt Lake City, UT. Presentation, Presented, 03/2015.
    http://www.slideshare.net/RebekahCummings/next-gen...
  • Cummings, R., Masood, K., & Olsen, M. (2014, May). Hub and spoke: leveraging the Mountain West Digital Library network. Speaker Session presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2014.
  • McIntyre, S., Neatrour, A., & Cummings, R. (2014, May). Providing the On-Ramp to the Digital Public Library. Speaker session presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2014.
  • Eldredge, S., McIntyre, C., & Cummings, R. (2014, May). Dusting off the history in your attic. Speaker session presented at the Utah Library Association Annual Conference, Sandy, UT. Presentation, Presented, 05/2014.
  • Cummings, R. (2014, April). Conceptualizing and implementing a webinar series: lessons learned from the Mountain West Digital Library Webinar Series. Poster presented at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, Austin, TX. Poster, Presented, 04/2014.
    https://conferences.tdl.org/tcdl/index.php/TCDL/TC...
  • Neatrour, A., Phillips, M., Cummings, R., Roy, J., & Carlisle, T. (2014, April). Serving as a Service Hub for the Digital Public Library of America. Speaker Panel presented at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, Austin, TX. Presentation, Presented, 04/2014.
    https://conferences.tdl.org/tcdl/index.php/TCDL/TC...
  • Cummings, R., & Darch, P. (2013, December). Between land and sea: divergent data stewardship practices in deep-sea biosphere research. Poster presented at the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA. Poster, Presented, 12/2013.
    http://works.bepress.com/rebekah_cummings/2/
  • Darch, P., & Cummings, R. (2013, December). Buried deep: How data about subseafloor life becomes dark and why. Presented at the AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA. Presentation, Presented, 12/2013.
    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013AGUFMIN12A..02D

Publications

  • Bascones, R. & Cummings, R. (2021). Discovery is the Researcher’s Dream. Insights. Vol. 34(1):23. Published, 10/13/2021.
    https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.57...
  • Cummings, R. (2020). Why Digital Matters: Building a Digital Humanities Center at the University of Utah. In T. Diamond (Ed.), The Academic Librarian in the Digital Age: Essays on Changing Roles and Responsibilities . (pp. 57-70). McFarland & Co.. Published, 09/2020.
    https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-academic-li...
  • Cummings, R. , Ozburn, L., Payant, A., Rozum, B., Shelton, M. & Bushman, R. (2020). Assessing Research Compliance for Federally Funded Projects: The Good, the Bad, and the Publicly Accessible. Journal of Library Administration,. Vol. 60(7), 726-751. Published, 08/2020.
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01930...
  • Cummings, R. , Roh, D. & Callaway, E. (2020). Organic and locally sourced: Growing a digital humanities lab with an eye towards sustainability. Digital Humanities Quarterly. Vol. 14(3). Published, 07/2020.
    http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/14/3/0004...
  • Cummings, R. & Bromberg, P. (2020). Restoring EBSCO: The Power of Coalition and Rapid Response. In V. Nye (Ed.) Intellectual Freedom Stories: From a Shifting Landscape . (pp. 125-132). American Library Association. Published, 04/2020.
    https://www.libraryintellectualfreedom.com/
  • Wittman, R. , Neatrour, A., Cummings, R. & Myntti, J. (2019). From Digital Library to Open Datasets. Information Technology and Libraries. Vol. 38. Published, 12/2019.
    https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ital/article/vi...
  • Rebekah Cummings & Valerie Nye (Ed.) (2018). Restoring EBSCO: The Power of Coalition and Rapid Response. American Library Association. Accepted, 12/2018.
  • Rebekah Cummings, David Roh & Elizabeth Callaway (2018). Organic and locally sourced: Growing a digital humanities lab with an eye towards sustainability. Digital Humanities Quarterly. Accepted, 10/19/2018.
  • Anna Neatrour, Elizabeth Callaway & Rebekah Cummings (2018). Kindles, card catalogs, and the future of libraries: a collaborative digital humanities project. Digital Library Perspectives. Vol. 34, 162-187. Published, 09/2018.
    https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-02-2018-0004
  • David Ackerman, Guy Almes , Kirk Anne, Wendy Bezotte, Rebekah Cummings, Curtis Hillegas, Valerie Polichar, Juliane Schneider, Shady Shehata, Brian Stengel & Ralph Zottola (2017). Considerations for Research Data Sharing Setting the Stage for Greater Openness. Educause. Published, 03/2017.
    https://library.educause.edu/resources/2017/3/cons...
  • Borgman, C. L., Golshan, M. S., Sands, A. E., Wallis, J. C., Cummings, R. L., Darch, P., & Randles, B. M. (2016). Data Management in the Long Tail: Science, Software, and Service. International Journal of Digital Curation, 11(1), 128–149. https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v11i1.428. Published, 10/2016.
    https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v11i1.428
  • Neatrour, A., Cummings, R., & McIntyre, S. (2016). Regional Aggregation and Discovery of Digital Collections: Mountain West Digital Library. In Exploring Discovery: The Front Door to a Library’s Licensed and Digitized Content. American Library Association. Published, 04/2016.
  • Borgman, Christine L., Golshan, M. S., Sands, A. E., Wallis, J. C., Cummings, R. L., & Randles, B. M. (2016). Data Management in the Long Tail: Social and Technical Opportunities. Presented at the 11th International Digital Curation Conference, Amsterdam. (Runner-up, Best Research Paper Award). Published, 02/2016.
  • Darch, P. T., Borgman, C. L., Traweek, S., Cummings, R. L., Wallis, J. C., & Sands, A. E. (2015). What lies beneath?: Knowledge infrastructures in the subseafloor biosphere and beyond. International Journal on Digital Libraries, 16(1), 61–77. Published, 05/2015.
    http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00799-...
  • Cummings, Rebekah. (2014). Much Ado About Data: Intellectual Property Issues Surrounding Academic Research Data. 2014 ICPSR Data Curation Research Paper Competition, Runner-up. Published, 07/2014.
    http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/files/ICPSR/prize/cummi...