Wild and Wonderful Datasets Published in the Illinois Data Bank

What research data have your IT expertise and systems been quietly supporting behind the scenes? As we celebrate the Illinois Data Bank’s 10th year, we’ll take you on a whirlwind tour of 10 datasets that we love—each memorable for a different reason. Along the way, we’ll explore what kind of data these actually are, how they were created and used, and why the underlying research matters. We’ll also highlight notable attributes that make research data fascinating (and sometimes challenging) to support: unusual or unexpected data formats, exceptionally large or complex collections, long-term collections that change over time, and features that make a dataset especially discoverable, reusable, or just plain intriguing. These examples showcase the breadth of research data at our University, giving a behind-the-scenes perspective on their utility, diversity, and distinctive quirks.