An Environmental Scan for Data Services
Trends that are shaping today’s environment for data services
Data Providers
Ever increasing number of data providers (governments, IRs, commercial vendors, NGOs, IGOs.)
More providers but harder to find, harder to choose from, poor online interfaces, and duplication of sources
The existence of producers that do not disseminate their data (or do it poorly or apply controls too tightly)
Data Providers
Producers who treat data as commodity Movement to data-sharing and preservation Data repositories recognizing need to
collaborate and to form partnerships between repositories (e.g., Data-PASS)
Emerging national digital information strategies shaping principles for digital access
Producers providing online analysis
Data Providers
Trends in dissemination include mix of open & proprietary formats; lack of standardized metadata; lack of services behind dissemination; questions of provenance
Trends in policies include intellectual property claims over data and copyright continue to create an unsettled state; funder requirements for open access forcing the hands of some data producers
Technology
IT obsolescence continues to be around the 36th month mark
Continued growth of institutional repositories Increased activity around visualization and GIS Migration from the desktop to the cloud (e.g.,
SDA, Nesstar) Open source analytic software (e.g., R) New data collection methodologies (facebook,
web surveys)
Technology
Changing nature of data in the social sciences including mixed methods producing text, audio & visual data, real time data collection
Open data practices and metadata standards Collaborative computing environments (Web 2.0
social networking, collaborative computing, etc.) The gap between haves and have-nots of technology
is not narrowing; persistence of digital divide Face issues of security control over local workstations
in the workplace (IT system admin control)
Technology
Training is essential, continuing and expensive
Not enough staff or technology support Mobile devices (for both data collection and
data dissemination)
Data Profession
Growing number of data service librarian positions, but still have very little specialization training in library schools; “data librarian” not generally understood.
No standard curriculum or professional track Profession is shifting to the life cycle
management of data
Data Profession
Many data services librarians have other significant responsibilities
Data professionals with different credentials Areas of data responsibility may include GIS,
e-science, digitization, etc. Anticipating increase in occupational prestige Involvement in recent trend of IRs and
trusted, certified digital repositories
Educational Sector
A wide variety of users (undergraduate, graduate, faculty)
Widespread digitization (everybody’s doing it!)
Weak economy is hurting the ed. sector Students better prepared and have higher
expectations. Ubiquitous data use Administrators embracing cyberinfrastructure
Educational Sector
Interdisciplinary studies: challenges by students and administrators over traditional disciplinary boundaries
Data in libraries Interest by humanities researchers in data NSF mandate for data management plans
and data deposit
Research community
Increased data demands Growth in interdisciplinary research More quantitative research and repurposing
of data Increased cost of data to support research Need more collaboration between
researchers and data librarians (e.g., data mgmt. plans)
Research community
Chaotic data distribution and sharing Project management help needed New methodologies Funders see value of data e-Science is generating awareness and
funding for data sharing, data preservation, data access, data infrastructure
External/International factors
Trust issues including issues of privacy, confidentiality, abuse of power
Emergence of international standards (e.g., DDI for data documentation)
Discussions occurring internationally about sharing data (e.g, the International Data Forum, CODATA, e-Science initiatives, IHSN)
External/International factors
Barriers created by different information cultures, by swings in political climates, and by uneven IT infrastructure across countries
Open data movement Barriers created by international intellectual
property law Perception of national security risks New availability of reliable international
development data
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