How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries
INTRODUCTION Data curation may be an emerging service for academic libraries, but researchers actively “curate” their data in a number of ways—even if terminology may not always align. Building on past userneeds assessments performed via survey and focus groups, the authors sought direct input from...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Iowa State University Digital Press
2018-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/12803/ |
| _version_ | 1797222109940809728 |
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| author | Claire Stewart Cynthia Hudson-Vitale Heidi Imker Jake Carlson Lisa Johnston Robert Olendorf Wendy Kozlowski |
| author_facet | Claire Stewart Cynthia Hudson-Vitale Heidi Imker Jake Carlson Lisa Johnston Robert Olendorf Wendy Kozlowski |
| author_sort | Claire Stewart |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | INTRODUCTION Data curation may be an emerging service for academic libraries, but researchers actively “curate” their data in a number of ways—even if terminology may not always align. Building on past userneeds assessments performed via survey and focus groups, the authors sought direct input from researchers on the importance and utilization of specific data curation activities. METHODS Between October 21, 2016, and November 18, 2016, the study team held focus groups with 91 participants at six different academic institutions to determine which data curation activities were most important to researchers, which activities were currently underway for their data, and how satisfied they were with the results. RESULTS Researchers are actively engaged in a variety of data curation activities, and while they considered most data curation activities to be highly important, a majority of the sample reported dissatisfaction with the current state of data curation at their institution. DISCUSSION Our findings demonstrate specific gaps and opportunities for academic libraries to focus their data curation services to more effectively meet researcher needs. CONCLUSION Research libraries stand to benefit their users by emphasizing, investing in, and/or heavily promoting the highly valued services that may not currently be in use by many researchers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T13:16:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7b43395e4fa9448c9e5e8ce418869648 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2162-3309 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T13:16:07Z |
| publishDate | 2018-04-01 |
| publisher | Iowa State University Digital Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-7b43395e4fa9448c9e5e8ce4188696482024-04-04T17:33:14ZengIowa State University Digital PressJournal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication2162-33092018-04-016110.7710/2162-3309.2198How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic LibrariesClaire StewartCynthia Hudson-Vitale0Heidi Imker1Jake Carlson2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2733-0969Lisa JohnstonRobert Olendorf3Wendy Kozlowski4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6539-3798Washington University in St. Louis University of Michigan Ann Arbor MIPennsylvania State UniversityCornell UniversityINTRODUCTION Data curation may be an emerging service for academic libraries, but researchers actively “curate” their data in a number of ways—even if terminology may not always align. Building on past userneeds assessments performed via survey and focus groups, the authors sought direct input from researchers on the importance and utilization of specific data curation activities. METHODS Between October 21, 2016, and November 18, 2016, the study team held focus groups with 91 participants at six different academic institutions to determine which data curation activities were most important to researchers, which activities were currently underway for their data, and how satisfied they were with the results. RESULTS Researchers are actively engaged in a variety of data curation activities, and while they considered most data curation activities to be highly important, a majority of the sample reported dissatisfaction with the current state of data curation at their institution. DISCUSSION Our findings demonstrate specific gaps and opportunities for academic libraries to focus their data curation services to more effectively meet researcher needs. CONCLUSION Research libraries stand to benefit their users by emphasizing, investing in, and/or heavily promoting the highly valued services that may not currently be in use by many researchers.https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/12803/data curationacademic librariesinstitutional repositoriesresearcher assessment |
| spellingShingle | Claire Stewart Cynthia Hudson-Vitale Heidi Imker Jake Carlson Lisa Johnston Robert Olendorf Wendy Kozlowski How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication data curation academic libraries institutional repositories researcher assessment |
| title | How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries |
| title_full | How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries |
| title_fullStr | How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries |
| title_short | How Important is Data Curation? Gaps and Opportunities for Academic Libraries |
| title_sort | how important is data curation gaps and opportunities for academic libraries |
| topic | data curation academic libraries institutional repositories researcher assessment |
| url | https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/12803/ |
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