The conceptual landscape of digital curation

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define and describe digital curation, an emerging field of theory and practice in the information professions that embraces digital preservation, data curation, and management of information assets over their lifecycle. It dissects key issues and debates in the area while arguing that digital curation is a vital strategy for dealing with the so-called data deluge. Design/methodology/approach This paper explores digital curation’s potential to provide an improved return on investment in data work. Findings A vital counterweight to the problem of data loss, digital curation also adds value to trusted data assets for current and future use. This paper unpacks data, the research enterprise, the roles and responsibilities of digital curation professionals, the data lifecycle, metadata, sharing and reuse, scholarly communication (cyberscholarship, publication and citation, and rights), infrastructure (archives, centers, libraries, and institutional repositories), and overarching issues (standards, governance and policy, planning and data management plans, risk management, evaluation, and metrics, sustainability, and outreach). Originality/value A critical discussion that focusses on North America and the UK, this paper synthesizes previous findings and conclusions in the area of digital curation. It has value for digital curation professionals and researchers as well as students in library and information science who may deal with data in the future. This paper helps potential stakeholders understand the intellectual and practical framework and the importance of digital curation in adding value to scholarly (science, social science, and humanities) and other types of data. This paper suggests the need for further empirical research, not only in exploring the actual sharing and reuse practices of various sectors, disciplines, and domains, but also in considering the the data lifecycle, the potential role of archivists, funding and sustainability, outreach and awareness-raising, and metrics.

Digging into data management in public‐funded, international research in digital humanities

“…To fulfill DID3's intellectual potential, stakeholders must provide for findability, availability, and usability. Libraries, archives, and institutional repositories represent underused venues for centralized data management (Poole, ).…”

“…Third, a range of other overlapping data management challenges crop up for interviewees, echoing Poole (). Representatives mention data scale (five DID3 teams), intellectual property and ownership (four), privacy (three), format (three), providing access (three), enhancement (two), and storage (two).…”

“…Data management is as pressing an issue in the humanities as in the sciences (Flanders & Munoz, n.d.; American Council of Learned Societies, ; Benardou, Constantopoulos, & Dallas, ; Benardou, Constantopoulos, Dallas, & Gavrilis, ; Henry, ; Poole, , , ; Renear et al, ) . It helps establish authority, prevents or mitigates corruption, deterioration, and loss, and facilitates sharing and reuse (Renear et al, ).…”

A literature review of scholarly communications metadata

“…11 of the policies included fewer than half of the elements on the rubric (2012, p. 4). Poole (2016) writes that researchers must comply with funder requirements which often ignore important "inter-domain differences in research practices" (p. 971). In addition he argues that funders often emphasize quantity of data without considering the likelihood it will be reused or building infrastructure for digital curation.…”

“…Efforts to improve researcher metadata should not be limited to researchers. Poole (2016) finds that researchers show an interest in creating shareable metadata but are often unaware that help is available from metadata experts, most often in the form of librarians at their home institutions (p. 969). Metadata experts in academic libraries, research data management institutions, and data publishing organizations all have a role to play, especially in developing a practice for research data sharing.…”