Piloting the Purchase of Research Data Sets as Collections: Navigating the Unknowns

Abstract

In fiscal year 2017, The Ohio State University Libraries in Columbus piloted the purchase of research data sets to explore how to integrate this format into the standard workflows of the collections strategist and electronic resources officer. The pilot project had few restrictions except that one-time money must be used and purchases must be available to the entire campus community. This pilot enabled the libraries to purchase several large-scale data sets while exploring issues around licensing, technical deployment, support, and assessment in an organization without a data librarian. This article details the pilot process and outlines the resulting considerations for future purchases of data sets.

Commercial data in academic business research: A study on use and access

“…Due to the lack of traditional collection development tools, librarians often purchase data in response to a patron request. Several Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) libraries have worked to manage data purchase requests by establishing formal processes, including patron-driven data purchase and grant programs at University of Michigan and University of Illinois, and a pilot to establish internal workflows for purchasing data sets at Ohio State University (University of Michigan Library, 2019; Sheehan & Hogenboom, 2017;Foster et al, 2019).…”

“…In their pilot project, Foster, Rinehart, and Springs identified challenges in maintaining data storage and access, assessing the impact of data set purchases, and achieving satisfactory licensing terms with vendors (Foster et al, 2019). For example, they found some licenses did not allow the public announcement of data set purchases.…”

“…Many data vendors may be unfamiliar with the needs and philosophies of academic libraries, and if they do serve the academic market, they are likely more accustomed to working with individual researchers and departments who are only looking for access for their own use rather than acquiring access for the entire institution as a library would. Because individuals and departments may purchase data in this decentralized manner, universities may end up duplicating data purchases across the university; with the library in the purchasing role, there is an opportunity to limit duplication while also equalizing access to data resources for students and faculty across the university (Foster et al, 2019;Sheehan & Hogenboom, 2017).…”

“…Libraries spend a great deal of time and funds on these resources and usage data is needed to determine return on investment. Faculty use of data in scholarly output can provide useful information for assessing the long-term impact of data purchases (Foster et al, 2019). • What commercial data are they using?…”

“…have not yet joined this trend. The efforts to improve data purchasing processes in BTAA libraries may be too recent and their impact on data use in published business and economics research remains to be seen as a subject of future research (Foster et al, 2019).…”