Selection, Appraisal, and Retention of Digital Scientific Data: Highlights of an ERPANET/CODATA Workshop

Abstract

CODATA and ERPANET collaborated to convene an international archiving workshop on the selection, appraisal, and retention of digital scientific data, which was held on 15-17 December 2003 at the Biblioteca Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal. The workshop brought together more than 65 researchers, data and information managers, archivists, and librarians from 13 countries to discuss the issues involved in making critical decisions regarding the long-term preservation of the scientific record. One of the major aims for this workshop was to provide an international forum to exchange information about data archiving policies and practices across different scientific, institutional, and national contexts. Highlights from the workshop discussions are presented.

Curation as “Interoperability With the Future”: Preserving Scholarly Research Software in Academic Libraries

“…The need for a comprehensive approach to the caretaking of digital research resources is recognized across a spectrum of scholarly communities (Boss & Broussard, ; Collberg & Proebsting, ; Lynch, ). Long‐term use and value are most effectively supported through the application of quality metadata and documentation (Esanu, Davidson, Ross, & Anderson, ). However, the reuse of digital research resources in new contexts can still present difficulties.…”

The analytic potential of scientific data: Understanding re-use value

“…Archival science and records management have developed rich and useful practices for systematically collecting and appraising digital content (Eastwood, 2004; Whyte & Wilson, 2010), but archival approaches tend to be more applicable to the retention of data for the scientific record than to our focus on supporting re‐use (Palmer, Renear & Cragin, 2008). Moreover, there remains a gulf between institutional and scientific notions of a record, a collection, and their representation in a digital form (Esanu, Davidson, Ross & Anderson, 2004). Library and information science collection development principles and criteria, which are driven by assessment of service community needs, may be effectively adapted to data repository practice, but existing collection evaluation techniques will need to be revised for data content.…”

Some challenges and issues in managing, and preserving access to, long-lived collections of digital scientific and technical data

“…The interchange at the CODATA/ERPANET was fruitful, and the difference in perspectives about records and data was striking. (ERPANET, 2004;Esanu, et al, 2004) The retention of selected and appraised data raises other issues. These include maintenance of data quality, enforcement of data security, and, migration of data sets to current, available and maintainable, hardware and software systems.…”

“…How are data chosen for retention? A recent CODATA/ERPANET workshop brought archivists and records managers and scientists and data managers together to discuss the objectives and practices of data selection, appraisal, and retention (Ross, et al, 2004;Esanu, Davidson, Ross & Anderson,2004). Although the two groups share many of the same values, the practices and procedures for selecting and appraising data differ across the archival and scientific communities.…”