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The purpose of this paper is to define and describe digital curation, an emerging field of theory and practice in the information professions that embraces digital preservation, data curation, and management of information assets over their lifecycle. It dissects key issues and debates in the area while arguing that digital curation is a vital strategy for dealing with the so-called data deluge.

This paper explores digital curation’s potential to provide an improved return on investment in data work.

A vital counterweight to the problem of data loss, digital curation also adds value to trusted data assets for current and future use. This paper unpacks data, the research enterprise, the roles and responsibilities of digital curation professionals, the data lifecycle, metadata, sharing and reuse, scholarly communication (cyberscholarship, publication and citation, and rights), infrastructure (archives, centers, libraries, and institutional repositories), and overarching issues (standards, governance and policy, planning and data management plans, risk management, evaluation, and metrics, sustainability, and outreach).

A critical discussion that focusses on North America and the UK, this paper synthesizes previous findings and conclusions in the area of digital curation. It has value for digital curation professionals and researchers as well as students in library and information science who may deal with data in the future. This paper helps potential stakeholders understand the intellectual and practical framework and the importance of digital curation in adding value to scholarly (science, social science, and humanities) and other types of data. This paper suggests the need for further empirical research, not only in exploring the actual sharing and reuse practices of various sectors, disciplines, and domains, but also in considering the the data lifecycle, the potential role of archivists, funding and sustainability, outreach and awareness-raising, and metrics.

This chapter traces the history of digital libraries (DLs) in the United States through the funding sources that have supported DL research and development over the past decade and a half. A set of related questions are addressed: How have the mission and goals of funding agencies affected the types of projects that have been funded? What have been the deliverables from funded projects and how have the goals of the funding agencies shaped those deliverables? Funding agencies have exerted strong influence over research and development in DLs, and different funding agencies have funded different types of projects, with varying sets of concerns for driving the various fields that feed into DLs. This chapter will address the impact that DL funding has had on the development of research in the field of Library and Information Science, as well as on the practice of librarianship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a range of perspectives on the relationship between research data and records and between recordkeeping and research data management.

This paper discusses literature in the field of research data management as part of preliminary work for the author’s doctoral research on the topic. The literature included in the review reflects contemporary and historical perspectives on the management and preservation of research data.

Preliminary findings indicate that records professionals have been involved in the management and preservation of research data since the early twentieth century. In the literature, research data is described as comparable to records, and records professionals are widely acknowledged to have skills and expertise which are applicable to research data management. Records professionals are one of a number of professions addressing research data management. However, they are not currently considered to be leaders in research data management practice.

Research data management is an emerging challenge as stakeholders in the research lifecycle increasingly mandate the publication of open, transparent research. Recent developments such as the publication of the OCLC report “The Archival Advantage: Integrating Archival Expertise into Management of Born-digital Library Materials”, and the creation of the Research Data Alliance Interest Group Archives and Records Professionals for Research Data indicates that research data is, or can be, within the remit of records professionals. This paper represents a snapshot of contemporary and historical attitudes towards research data and recordkeeping and thus contributes to this emerging area of discussion.