Dreaming of Data: The Library's Role in Supporting e-Research and Data Management

The increasing focus on eResearch comes with an increasing focus on data management, data use, data sharing and data re-use. This presents a challenge to research institutions as they decide where the responsibility for all of this data lies. Libraries have long had a role in managing text-based materials in the digital environment, as can be seen by the rapid take up of institutional repositories and many library ventures into electronic publishing of different kinds. There are many who see that the library has a significant role to play here, and several Australian university libraries are already actively engaged in data management in its broadest sense, as are state libraries, the National Library and others. This paper examines the capabilities and skills required within research institutions as they implement the organisational and cultural change which will be needed. It is based on two surveys conducted in 2007. The Skills for eResearch Project undertaken by APSR included interviews and surveys of a range of people associated with the eResearch agenda. The findings suggest that the provision of appropriately skilled personnel will be key factor in moving forward, and that the skills required go far beyond the technical. At the same time, there are currently many barriers to the conduct of eResearch and these will need to be addressed in order to develop new services supporting institutional capability. The Data Management Survey was conducted by three Australian universities in late 2007 and looked at the data management practices of researchers. The results show both positives and negatives, and point towards areas for improvement. The eResearch environment The growing capacity of information and communications technologies to contribute to research of all kinds has excited researchers the world over as they invent new ways of conducting research and enjoy the benefits of bigger and more sophisticated computers and communications systems to support measurement, analysis, modelling, simulation, collaboration and publishing. In the process they are collecting and creating data, masses of it, and increasingly more as the level of technological sophistication grows. The solutions to many of the world’s greatest problems lie in our capacity to work across disciplines, to collect and analyse data, and to create models and simulations, as can be seen in areas such as global warming, the need for alternative power sources and maintaining political stability. As a consequence, governments are keen to support research, and at the same time keen to ensure that the products of research, which is to say data, are well managed, readily findable and, preferably, available on open access. If data sets can be re-used, they say, then they should be. If the government is paying for the research, then the public should be entitled to have access to all the products of that research (while recognising ethical and privacy issues are also important). The issue of institutional capacity and individual capabilities required to support eResearch has received attention internationally. Technical developments and the take