Research Data Access and Preservation Summit - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 8
About This Presentation
Title:

Research Data Access and Preservation Summit

Description:

Research Data Access and Preservation Summit Panel 2 - Promoting Re-Use of Scientific Collections Some responses to the questions posed... John Harrison – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:66
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 9
Provided by: JohnHa195
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Research Data Access and Preservation Summit


1
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
2
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)

3
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.

5
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

6
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

7
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!

8
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.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com