Question

Data Curation – Question 3

June 2013

3Why is data curation important to non-data curators?

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Data curation is important to anyone who uses data or will be affected by the use of data, so everyone, really! The difficult part is to make the concept accessible and to convey the importance to those not working in a data curation setting. In academic circles the idea that a researcher’s valuable contribution to the field could be unreadable in as little as ten years makes an impression. Many of the activities that curators can use to ensure the preservation of data are not controversial, such as storing data in standard formats and creating preservation metadata.

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This question can apply to two groups: those who are involved in data collection, analysis, or storage, but who do not see curation as one of their primary activities (researchers, students, or librarians); or those who benefit from data availability, but who use it primarily to make decisions in their non-data-oriented work (administrators, policy makers, or the larger public).

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Data curation is important to non-data curators because they do not want to have to spend time thinking about data curation. Data creators and users want to focus on creating and using data, engaging in research, and producing knowledge. Data curation is a means to an end for most creators and users, and it functions best if it requires as little effort as possible on their part.

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Carrying out digital research (almost all research is now at least semi-digital) requires that both scholars and information professionals understand how to manage and curate data over its entire lifetime of interest. At the least, individual scholars must be able to document their data curation strategies and evaluate those of collaborators and other purveyors of data.

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Gretchen Gueguen

Digital Archivist, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library – University of Virginia

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Inna Kouper

CLIR/DLF Data Curation Postdoctoral Fellow, Data to Insight Center – Indiana University

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Sam Meister

Digital Archivist and Assistant Professor, Mansfield Library – University of Montana

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Trevor Muñoz

Associate Director, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH); Assistant Dean of Digital Humanities Research, University Libraries – University of Maryland

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Source: http://dev.archivejournal.net/roundtable/data-curation-question-3/