Retooling Libraries for the Data Challenge :
“Eager to prove their relevance among scholars leaving print behind, libraries have participated vocally in the last half-decade’s conversation about digital research data. On the surface, libraries would seem to have much human and technological infrastructure ready-constructed to repurpose for data: digital library platforms and institutional repositories may appear fit for purpose. However, unless libraries understand the salient characteristics of research data, and how they do and do not fit with library processes and infrastructure, they run the risk of embarrassing missteps as they come to grips with the data challenge.
Whether managing research data is ‘the new special collections,’ a new form of regular academic-library collection development, or a brand-new library specialty, the possibilities have excited a great deal of talk, planning, and educational opportunity in a profession seeking to expand its boundaries.
Faced with shrinking budgets and staffs, library administrators may well be tempted to repurpose existing technology infrastructure and staff to address the data curation challenge. Existing digital libraries and institutional repositories seem on the surface to be a natural fit for housing digital research data. Unfortunately, significant mismatches exist between research data and library digital warehouses, as well as the processes and procedures librarians typically use to fill those warehouses. Repurposing warehouses and staff for research data is therefore neither straightforward nor simple; in some cases, it may even prove impossible.”
URL : http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue64/salo/
Archives des mots-clés : digital collection
Repository Software Comparison: Building…
Repository Software Comparison: Building Digital Library Infrastructure at LSE :
“Digital collections at LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science)are significant and growing, as are the requirements of their users. LSE Library collects materials relevant to research and teaching in the social sciences, crossing the boundaries between personal and organisational archives, rare and unique printed collections and institutional research outputs. Digital preservation is an increasing concern alongside our commitment to continue to develop innovative digital services for researchers and students. The Digital Library Management and Infrastructure Development Programme is a cross-library initiative to build our capacity to collect, manage, preserve and provide access to our digital collections. The initial phase of the programme has investigated our collections, their users and best practice in the wider community and produced functional specifications for testing against the current best-of-breed open source repository software. Following this comparison we made a recommendation for the implementation of a repository system to operate at the core of our digital library. This article gives a summary of that comparison.”
URL : http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue64/fay/