TY - JOUR

T1 - Curating research data

T2 - The potential roles of libraries and information professionals

AU - Nielsen, Hans Jørn

AU - Hjørland, Birger

N1 - This paper is a product of the research project "viden i spil"

PY - 2014/2/11

Y1 - 2014/2/11

N2 - Purpose – A key issue in the literature about research libraries concerns their potential role in managing research data. The aim of this paper is to study the arguments for and against associating this task with libraries and the impact such an association would have on information professionals, and consider the competitors to libraries in this field.Design/methodology/approach – This paper considers the nature of data and discusses data typologies, the kinds of data contained within databases and the implications of criticisms of the data-information-knowledge (DIK) hierarchy. It outlines the many competing agencies in the data curation field and describes their relationships to different kinds of data.Findings – Many data are organically connected to the activities of large, domain-specific organizations; as such, it might be difficult for research libraries to assume a leadership role in curating data. It seems more likely that the qualifications of information professionals will come to be needed in such organizations and that the functions of research libraries will shift toward givinggreater prevalence to their role as specialists in scholarly communication. In some cases, however, research libraries may be the best place to select, keep, organize and use research data. To prepare for this task, research libraries should be actively involved in domain-specific analytic studies of theirrespective domains.Originality/value – This paper offers a theoretical analysis and clarification of the problems of data curating from the perspective of research libraries.

AB - Purpose – A key issue in the literature about research libraries concerns their potential role in managing research data. The aim of this paper is to study the arguments for and against associating this task with libraries and the impact such an association would have on information professionals, and consider the competitors to libraries in this field.Design/methodology/approach – This paper considers the nature of data and discusses data typologies, the kinds of data contained within databases and the implications of criticisms of the data-information-knowledge (DIK) hierarchy. It outlines the many competing agencies in the data curation field and describes their relationships to different kinds of data.Findings – Many data are organically connected to the activities of large, domain-specific organizations; as such, it might be difficult for research libraries to assume a leadership role in curating data. It seems more likely that the qualifications of information professionals will come to be needed in such organizations and that the functions of research libraries will shift toward givinggreater prevalence to their role as specialists in scholarly communication. In some cases, however, research libraries may be the best place to select, keep, organize and use research data. To prepare for this task, research libraries should be actively involved in domain-specific analytic studies of theirrespective domains.Originality/value – This paper offers a theoretical analysis and clarification of the problems of data curating from the perspective of research libraries.

KW - Research Data

KW - Academic libraries

U2 - 10.1108/JD-03-2013-0034

DO - 10.1108/JD-03-2013-0034

M3 - Journal article

VL - 70

SP - 221

EP - 240

JO - Journal of Documentation

JF - Journal of Documentation

SN - 0022-0418

IS - 2

ER -