Whose Role Is It Anyway?: A Library Practitioner's Appraisal of the Digital Data Deluge

摘要

As the volume of digital data multiplies exponentially and the use of digital repositories toncapture academic research expands, the demands on academic librarians are alsonincreasing. Librarians are expected to serve as liaisons between data authors, managers,nscientists and end users, while providing a full range of curation services. Little has beennoffered from the perspective of archival and records management, despite archivists’ntraditional role as keepers and stewards of scholars’ data. Archival science focuses onnappraising, selecting and describing data, managing data retention and attending to source,nauthenticity and preservation. Professional archivists have considerable expertise innhandling volumes of research data, and archival methods can add efficiency to digital datanmanagement. Greater collaboration between academic library liaisons and archivists is urged,nrecognizing and integrating the skills of each profession to best advantage for the mostneffective approach to comprehensive data curation and management of digital repositories