The University Library has a leading role in establishing standards, procedures and services to help researchers preserve their original data. We were therefore delighted to meet Robin Rice, who visited this month.

In a meeting with our Discipline Librarians in February, Robin shared some of her expertise in data sharing, data libraries and roles for librarians in providing data management services for researchers.

As the Data Librarian at the University of Edinburgh, Robin is the service manager for that university’s Data Library, a collection of information produced by Edinburgh scholars in the course of their research activities. Robin is also project manager of DISC-UK DataShare, a JISC-funded project to establish institutional data repositories at three UK universities.

Conducting university research often involves creating new data, processing it, analysing it and perhaps transforming it through visualisation or other methods. Modern technologies allow us to create enormous quantities of data and analysis . Once the research is completed and an article or other ‘finished’ output has been published, the original data needs to be preserved and possibly made available to other researchers in the future. Some data can be destroyed after just a few years; other information will be preserved indefinitely, just like other historical documents.

Whilst in Melbourne, Robin Rice spent most of her time at Monash University. Her presentation to the Victorian eResearch Strategic Initiative (VeRSI) group is available as an MP3 (streaming or download) and presentation slides (PDF 1 Mb).

The Library Systems team can help you become a ‘power user’ of the University Library’s online catalogues and resources.

The group’s Library IT Tips (LITT) blog offers advice on using library systems, discussions about new features, and tips and tools for improving your Library search-fu. Add it to your feedreader or visit regularly to find out what’s new.

Feel free to comment on any posts of interest to you — the Library Systems team would love to have your feedback!

A major study has just been published on the Integrated Library Management System market in UK Higher Education. It was commission by the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Society of College, National and University Librarians (SCONUL)

This is a timely report, given that the Library is to review its own library systems. I found the report echoed concerns a number of us have expressed over purchasing a new or upgraded system at a time when their demise seems certain within the next decade.
Follow the link to this extremely useful reort published in March 2008