Integration of Data and Publications - Alliance for Permanent Access

Report on Integration of Data and Publications Grant Agreement no.: 261530
Libraries have been keepers of knowledge for hundreds and thousands (in the case of
Library of Alexandria) of years. They are experts in categorizing fields of knowledge and
in recording and cataloguing all relevant information about a particular publication,
including provenance and information about its author. They have been collecting,
organizing, describing, preserving and making available knowledge and information
manifested in printed books and articles and they are ready to transfer this experience
to new forms of (digital) collections.
Several symposia and publications bear witness that the libraries community is in a
transition process, rethinking their role in an increasingly digital environment in
general and in e-research in particular:
A study commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN) in 2007 asked if data
management was a job for academic librarians. The survey data provided mixed
messages: “Many librarians see data curation as a natural extension of their current
role, but there is also evidence of caution in terms of the curation of large-scale datasets
linked to e-research.” 52
A symposium organized by the US Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
explored functions of the research library in a changing information landscape in 2008. 53
It came to the conclusion that libraries needed to engage in data management and data
curation to reflect basic changes in how scholars work – in collaboration with faculty and
publishers. Rick Luce suggested in the same publication that traditional library roles
must be augmented by new capabilities, centred on collaborative, data-intensive
information resources. 54
The Association of European Research Libraries, LIBER, made “Scholarly
Communication” one of its 5 strategic priorities 2009-2012. 55 The corresponding working
group on e-science recently organised the workshop “Libraries and research data:
exploring alternatives for services and partnerships” that met large interest (presently
not published).
While the library system has evolved over the centuries, the data centre landscape is a
relatively young one, with the first scientific data centres dating back to the mid 20 th
century (ex: US National Climatic Data Centre: 1951, World Data Centre: 1957/8). The
data centre landscape is more fragmented than the library system. There are wellestablished
disciplinary data centres in some data intensive research domains (see for
example CESSDA member organisations for the Social Sciences, CERN computer centre
for Particle Physics, the members of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance in
52 RIN 2007: Researchers’ Use of Academic Libraries and their Services. A report commissioned
by the Research Information Network and the Consortium of Research Libraries (2007).
http://www.rin.ac.uk/system/files/attachments/Researchers-libraries-services-report.pdf
53 CLIR 2008: No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century. Council on
Library and Information Resources (2008). http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub142abst.html
54 Richard E. Luce: A New Value Equation Challenge: The Emergence of eResearch and Roles for
Research Libraries. In: No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21 st Century
(2008). http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub142/pub142.pdf
55 http://www.libereurope.eu/committee/scholarly-communication
Opportunities for Data Exchange (ODE) –www.ode-project.eu 63