Research Data Access and Preservation Summit

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Research Data Access and Preservation
Summit Panel 2 - Promoting Re-Use of Scientific
Collections Some responses to the questions
posed... John Harrison SHAMAN Project University
of Liverpool john.harrison_at_liverpool.ac.uk
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How do you handle organization of collections
today?

• We created a highly structured hierarchy of
  directories within our storage system (currently
  iRODS)
• Allows logical separation, but association of
• Collection data
• Supporting documentation (context, provenance)
• System
• Policies
• Software code
• Configurations, Workflows
• Discovery mechanisms (indexes)

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What are the biggest issues with building
collections for new communities?

• Scalability quantity of data is increasing
  rapidly
• More important to select, and prioritize data
  with most potential to be useful to future
  generations.
• Mechanisms for identifying useful items in large
  reference collections become more important.

4
When new communities access existing data
collections, what new access capabilities are
required?

• It's difficult to generalize depends a great
  deal on expectations of the community in
  question.
• Viewing the data will be essential for all
  communities
• One important aspect of our approach has been to
  develop a display technology, independent of the
  originating application
• Emulation, but with a layer of abstraction from
  the operating system (Java Virtual Machine)
• Provides a platform for development of new and
  unforeseen capabilities for interaction with
  legacy (potentially obselete) file formats.

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What level of description is required to meet the
expectations of new communities?

• Impossible to say for certain. Expectations
  evolve as technology develops.
• Best we can do
• Rigidly adhere to most stringent and well
  documented standards of today.
• Preserve the means for future generations to
  interpret these descriptions by preserving
  documentation on the standard
• Tag libraries Schemas for XML
• Ontologies

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Is long-term sustainability enabled through
re-purposing of collections?

• Theoretically, yes only time will tell for sure
• Best change of achieving sustainability by using
  open standards to describe
• Digital objects, their structure and associations
• Metadata (digital objects and the archive as a
  whole)
• Data management policies and processes

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Are there other driving purposes behind promoting
re-use of collections?

• Data may provide insights into unforeseen areas.
• e.g. results of drug trials might inform future
  drug development in the pharmaceutical
  industryIn such a highly regulated industry,
  the ability to get back to raw data to ensure
  authenticity is very important!

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Which institutions can be approached for
sustaining re-purposed collections?

• So far, it seems to be mainly memory institutions
  that are looking at issues of digital
  preservation (Libraries, Archives, Museums)
• Anyone with significant data should be thinking
  about issues surrounding preservation of their
  knowledge/information assets.
• In the future, funding bids should consider the
  costs of preserving the results of their
  research.
• I think inevitably many organizations will end up
  out-sourcing digital preservation.