Who uses the digital data archive? An exploratory study of DANS

摘要

Despite the advances in policy and practice for data sharing,rnsurprisingly little is known about the uses and users ofrndigital data archives, about relationships between users andrnthe staff of data archives, or how these behaviors vary byrndiscipline, geographic region, policy, and other factors.rnDigital data archives are not a single type of institution,rnhowever. They vary widely in organizational structure,rnmission, collection, funding, and relationships to their usersrnand other stakeholders. We present an exploratory study ofrnDANS, the Digital Archiving and Networked Services ofrnthe Netherlands, with the goal of identifying methods forrnstudying the contributors, consumers, and role of archivistsrnin digital data archives. Starting with transaction logs thatrnserve management purposes, we present estimates of therndistribution of uses and users of DANS. Units of analysisrnnecessary to study user behavior, such as dataset, file, user,rncreator, and consumer, are difficult to glean from logs thatrnwere not designed for these inquiries. We recommendrnmethods for improving the design of data collectionrninstruments and outline the subsequent phases of ourrnmixed-method research on the uses, users, policy, andrnpractice of digital data archiving.