Big Data + Libraries

This blog is to provide information to University of Melbourne Library staff.

The amount of research data is growing constantly, dueto new technology with new potentials for collecting and analyzing both digitaldata and research objects. This growth creates a demand for a coherent IT-infrastructure.Such an infrastructure must be able to provide facilities for storage,preservation and a more open access to data in order to fulfill the demandsfrom the researchers themselves, the research councils and researchfoundations. The first part of this paper presents the findings ofa research project carried out under the auspices of DEFF (DanmarksElektroniske Fag- og Forskningsbibliotek – Denmark’s Electronic researchLibrary)[i] toanalyze how the Danish universities store, preserve and provide access toresearch data. It shows that they do not have a common IT-infrastructure forresearch data management. This paper describes the various paths chosen byindividual universities and research institutions, and the background for theirstrategies of research data management. Among the main reasons for the unevenpractices are the lack of a national policy in this field, the differentscientific traditions and cultures and the differences in the use andorganization of IT-services. The second part of this paper presents perspectives ofthis development that are of particular relevance to research libraries. As theyalready curate digital collections and are active in establishing web archives,the research libraries become involved in research and dissemination ofknowledge in new ways. This paper gives examples of how The State andUniversity Library’s services facilitate research data management with specialregard to digitization of research objects, storage, preservation and sharingof research data.  This paper concludes that the experience and skills ofresearch libraries make the libraries important partners in a research datamanagement infrastructure. Keywords: research data management, university, library, nationalcultural heritage