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Research Collections and Support

Libraries are increasingly leveraging the raw materials of scholarship and knowledge formation by emphasizing the creation and curation of institutional research assets and outputs, including digitized special collections, research data, and researcher profiles. Our work informs current thinking about research collections and the emerging services that libraries are offering to support contemporary modes of scholarship. We are encouraging the development of new ways for libraries to build and provide these types of collections and deliver distinctive services. Our efforts are focused in the following three areas:

Presentations

Total Cost of Stewardship cover image

Total Cost of Stewardship: Responsible Collection Building in Archives & Special Collections

By Chela Scott Weber

Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting; Accessioning, Appraisal, and Acquisition Section
virtual

Developed by the OCLC Research Library Partnership’s (RLP) Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group, Total Cost of Stewardship is a framework that proposes a holistic approach to understanding the resources needed to responsibly acquire and steward archives and special collections. The Total Cost of Stewardship Framework responds to the ongoing challenge of descriptive backlogs in archives and special collections by connecting collection development decisions with stewardship responsibilities. 

Total Cost of Stewardship cover image

The Power of Archival Accessioning

By Chela Scott Weber

Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting; Accessioning, Appraisal, and Acquisition Section
virtual

Developed by the OCLC Research Library Partnership’s (RLP) Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group, Total Cost of Stewardship is a framework that proposes a holistic approach to understanding the resources needed to responsibly acquire and steward archives and special collections. The Total Cost of Stewardship Framework responds to the ongoing challenge of descriptive backlogs in archives and special collections by connecting collection development decisions with stewardship responsibilities. 

Open for all. Reusable for whom? A review of what data reusers want and how data repositories can deliver

Open for all. Reusable for whom? A review of what data reusers want and how data repositories can deliver

By Lisa R Johnston, Ixchel M Faniel, Katie Wissel

Open Repositories 2021
virtual

Understanding how data reusers seek and evaluate potential data for reuse will aid data curators, data managers, and developers in the open repository field. We will review past studies of data reusers, specifically a qualitative study of 105 researchers from three disciplinary communities: quantitative social science, archaeology, and zoology. The study identified 12 types of context information that data reusers mention needing when deciding whether to reuse data. Next, we will use the context types to create a feature set and assess how data repositories provide the needed context information to users. Finally, using findings from our assessment, we will showcase desirable features in use to prototype the design of a reuser-oriented data repository that developers can use to improve their data repository interface.

 

Topics: Research Data Management

Facilitating Successful Cross-Campus Partnerships to Further the University Research Enterprise

Facilitating Successful Cross-Campus Partnerships to Further the University Research Enterprise

By Rebecca Bryant

Australia New Zealand Partners Webinar
virtual

This presentation provides an introduction to the recent OCLC Research report, Social Interoperability in Research Support: Cross-Campus Partnerships and The University Research Enterprise. Bryant explains why this collaboration is important, who the stakeholders would be, identifies the categories of support-services this collaboration will likely surface, and provides strategies and practical advice about cross-campus relationship-building in research support.

Topics: Research Information Management, Research Support, Research Data Management

The Rapidly Changing Research Information Management Landscape

The Rapidly Changing Research Information Management Landscape

By Rebecca Bryant

Expert Finder Systems International Forum 2021
virtual

Expert finder systems are part of a larger ecosystem of research information management, comprising a variety of use cases, systems, practices, workflows, and stakeholders. This broad array of activities mirrors the complexity and decentralization so characteristic of U.S. higher education, but still reflects commonality in the core practice of aggregating, curating, and using metadata about institutional research activities. Bryant discusses the rapidly changing RIM landscape in the US, the focus of a current project at OCLC Research.

Topics: Research Information Management

Building Cross-campus Relationships

Building Cross-campus Relationships in Research Support Services

By Rebecca Bryant, Brian Lavoie

CNI Fall Membership Meeting
virtual

Robust, sustainable provision of research support services such as research data management, research information management, and research analytics requires careful attention to social interoperability—the creation and maintenance of working relationships between individuals and organizational units around the campus—to promote effective collaboration across internal silos. Research support is an enterprise-scale activity, involving units like the library, the research office, campus IT, and many others

This presentation provides an overview of findings from the recent OCLC Research report “Social Interoperability in Research Support: Cross-Campus Partnerships and the University Research Enterprise.” The report explores the social and structural norms that shape cross-campus collaboration; offers a conceptual model of key university stakeholders in research support; provides an overview of the goals, interests, expertise, and crucially, the importance of cross-campus relationships for these stakeholders; and concludes with recommendations for establishing and maintaining successful cross-campus relationships. 

The report is based on a synthesis of information gathered from interviews conducted with practitioners from a wide range of campus stakeholders in research support. Attendees will take away a deeper understanding of the campus stakeholders involved in major categories of research support services and learn techniques for establishing and sustaining partnerships with these stakeholders.

Topics: Research Data Management, Research Support

Rediscovering Discovery: three general examples

Rediscovering Discovery: three general examples

By Lorcan Dempsey

CNI Spring 2020 Membership Meeting
virtual

This presentation accompanied a panel discussion of current trends and issues in discovery systems, including a description of value-added full-text linking features, user behaviors and needs identified by transaction log analysis, the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in discovery, and plans by the Big Ten Academic Alliance for a collective collection system. 

Recording available from CNI on Vimeo

Topics: Collective Collections, Library Trends

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Research Information Management in the United States

By Rebecca Bryant

Expertise Systems in Florida Universities: Collaboration Across Campus and Beyond
virtual

Bryant shares highlights of her research into Research Information Management, particularly describing primary US cases, how American practices are distinctive from European—and indeed—global practices, and the importance of cross-institutional collaboration to ensure quality data and reduce workflow duplication.

Recording available from Florida Universities on Zoom.

Topics: Research Information Management

Archaeological data practices and the implications for successful data sharing and reuse

Archaeological data practices and the implications for successful data sharing and reuse

By Ixchel M. Faniel

SEADDA Workshop on the Use and Reuse of Archaeological Data
virtual

In this keynote presentation, Ixchel M. Faniel discusses findings from several studies examining archaeological data practices and needs and the implications for successful data sharing and reuse.

Keynote recording available from SEADDA.

Topics: User Research, Research Data Management, SLO-Data

Identifying Opportunities for Collective Curation During Archaeological Excavations

Identifying Opportunities for Collective Curation During Archaeological Excavations

By Ixchel M. Faniel

15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC 2020)
Dublin, Ireland

Archaeological excavations are comprised of interdisciplinary teams that create, manage, and share data as they unearth and analyze material culture. These team-based settings are ripe for collective curation, particularly among the excavation teams responsible for unearthing the materials and the specialists responsible for analysing them. Yet, findings from a study of four excavation sites show specialist data tend to remain unlinked and decontextualized from excavation data. This presentation highlights findings from the study, opportunities identified for collective curation, and responses from the four excavation projects.

Topics: Research Data Management, User Research, SLO-Data