What does the science library / informatics professional need to know

and be able to do?

Ronald L. Larsen, DeanThe iSchool at Pitt

Oct. 17, 2008

Come gather 'round peopleWherever you roamAnd admit that the watersAround you have grownAnd accept it that soonYou'll be drenched to the bone.If your time to youIs worth savin'Then you better start swimmin'Or you'll sink like a stoneFor the times they are a-changin'.

Qualitatively different opportunities for new forms of research and scholarship

A content infrastructure for novel forms of research.

A blend of interdisciplinary research and development that engages scientists, technologists, and humanities scholars. www.sis.pitt.edu/

~repwkshop

Data-driven Collect, curate, preserve, and support access to

content of enduring value A human reads one document at a time… a

computer analyzes millions, discovering patterns otherwise undetectable

Communication-enabled arXiv.org, protein database, NVO, wikis, blogs, … Accelerating the exchange of ideas Expanding the field of contributors

Components Collections of digital content Software Web services Workflows

Uneven progress Primary research data often discarded after publication When saved, rarely publicly accessible When published, frequently incompatible with e-science

Approaching a tipping point Digital content the norm in most disciplines Infrastructure lagging

“… the current scientific literature, were it to be presented in semantically accessible form, contains huge amounts of undiscovered science.”

“However, the apathy of the academic, scientific, and information communities, coupled with the indifference or even active hostility and greed of many publishers, renders literature-data-driven science still inaccessible.”

Ensure that all publicly funded research products and primary resources will be readily available, accessible, and usable via common infrastructure and tools through space and time, and across disciplines, stages of research, and modes of human expression.

Capture content Guidelines, norms, and incentives for publishing data,

software, surveys, … Make it broadly accessible

“When collections get large, only the computer reads every word.” Gregory Crane, Tufts University

Enable innovative value-added services Cataloging, indexing, customizing, personalizing,

summarizing, visualizing, translating, analyzing, … Curate & preserve

Primary data, web services, workflows, the “data journal”

Variety Digitized books, e-journals, web pages, scientific data, courseware, new media, …

Resistance to change Tradition & complacency Scholarly reputation of alternative venues

Scale and complexity 161 x 109 GB in 2006 40% / year growth rate 1 online + 3 tape backups = $7T / yr (national debt ≈$10T)

Open access to science and public scholarship “Our mission of disseminating knowledge is only half

complete if the information is not made widely and readily available to society.” Berlin Declaration, Oct. 2003

Stability Of organizations, associations, technology, and data

What does the science library / informatics professional need to know

and be able to do?

•Seek the high ground

•Assure linkage to institutional

mission

•Create new value-added

services

•Serve on disciplinary research

teams

•Measure, assess, revise…