Data Library
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A data library, data archive, or data repository is a
collection Collection or Collections may refer to: * Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department * Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service * Collection agency, agency to collect cash * Collectio ...
of numeric and/or
geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also call ...
data set A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record of the ...
s for secondary use in research. A data library is normally part of a larger institution (academic, corporate, scientific, medical, governmental, etc.). established for research data archiving and to serve the data users of that organisation. The data library tends to house local data collections and provides access to them through various means ( CD-/
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
-ROMs or central
server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
for download). A data library may also maintain subscriptions to licensed data resources for its users to access the information. Whether a data library is also considered a data archive may depend on the extent of unique holdings in the collection, whether long-term preservation services are offered, and whether it serves a broader community (as national data archives do). Most public data libraries are listed in the
Registry of Research Data Repositories The Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data.org) is an open science tool that offers researchers, funding organizations, libraries and publishers an overview of existing international repositories for research data. Background re3da ...
.


Importance and services

In August 2001, the
Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 127 research libraries at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research l ...
(ARL) published a report presenting results from a survey of ARL member institutions involved in collecting and providing services for numeric data resources. Library service providing support at the institutional level for the use of numerical and other types of datasets in research. Amongst the support activities typically available: * Reference Assistance — locating numeric or geospatial datasets containing measurable variables on a particular topic or group of topics, in response to a user query. * User Instruction — providing hands-on training to groups of users in locating data resources on particular topics, how to download data and read it into spreadsheet, statistical, database, or GIS packages, how to interpret codebooks and other documentation. * Technical Assistance - including easing registration procedures, troubleshooting problems with the dataset, such as errors in the documentation, reformatting data into something a user can work with, and helping with statistical methodology. * Collection Development & Management - acquire, maintain, and manage a collection of data files used for secondary analysis by the local user community; purchase institutional data subscriptions; act as a site representative to data providers and national data archives for the institution. * Preservation and Data Sharing Services - act on a strategy of preservation of datasets in the collection, such as media refreshment and file format migration; download and keep records on updated versions from a central repository. Also, assist users in preparing original data for secondary use by others; either for deposit in a central or institutional repository, or for less formal ways of sharing data. This may also involve marking up the data into an appropriate XML standard, such as the Data Documentation Initiative, or adding other metadata to facilitate online discovery.


Examples


Natural sciences

The following list refers to scientific data archives. * CISL Research Data Archive *
DataONE DataONE is a network of interoperable data repositories facilitating data sharing, data discovery, and open science. Originally supported by $21.2 million in funding from the US National Science Foundation as one of the initial DataNet programs ...
*
Dryad A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies " oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved t ...
* ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive Facility
International Tree-Ring Data Bank

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research

Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity
*
National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), located within ICPSR, is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). NACDA's mission is to advance research on aging by helping researchers to profit from the under-exploited potent ...
* National Archive of Criminal Justice Dat

* NCAR Research Data Archive: http://rda.ucar.edu *
National Climatic Data Center The United States National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), previously known as the National Weather Records Center (NWRC), in Asheville, North Carolina, was the world's largest active archive of weather data. Starting as a tabulation unit in New Orl ...
*
National Geophysical Data Center The United States National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) provided scientific stewardship, products and services for geophysical data describing the solid earth, marine, and solar-terrestrial environment, as well as earth observations from spac ...
*
National Snow and Ice Data Center The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) is a United States information and referral center in support of polar and cryospheric research. NSIDC archives and distributes digital and analog snow and ice data and also maintains information abo ...
*
National Oceanographic Data Center The National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) was one of the national environmental data centers operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The main NODC facility was located in Sil ...

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center
* Pangaea - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science * NASA SeaBASS - Data archive for ocean color data *
World Data Center The World Data Centre (WDC) system was created to archive and distribute data collected from the observational programmes of the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year by the International Council of Science ( ICSU). The WDCs were funded and m ...


Social sciences

In the social sciences, data libraries are referred to as data archives. Data archives are professional institutions for the acquisition, preparation, preservation, and dissemination of social and behavioral data. Data archives in the social sciences evolved in the 1950s and have been perceived as an international movement:
By 1964 the International Social Science Council (ISSC) had sponsored a second conference on Social Science Data Archives and had a standing Committee on Social Science Data, both of which stimulated the data archives movement. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, most developed countries and some developing countries had organized formal and well-functioning national data archives. In addition, college and university campuses often have `data libraries' that make data available to their faculty, staff, and students; most of these bear minimal archival responsibility, relying for that function on a national institution (Rockwell, 2001, p. 3227).Rockwell, R. C. (2001). Data Archives: International. IN: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (eds.) ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences'' (vol. 5, pp. 3225- 3230). Amsterdam: Elsevier
* re3data.org is a global registry of research data repository indexing data archives from all disciplines: http://www.re3data.org * CESSDA Members are data archives and other organisations that archive social science data and provide data for secondary use: https://www.cessda.eu/About/Consortium * Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives: http://www.cessda.org/ * Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD): http://www.fsd.uta.fi/ * The Danish Data Archives: http://www.sa.dk/content/us/about_us ; specific page (only in Danish): https://web.archive.org/web/20150318230743/http://www.sa.dk/dda/default.htm * Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ * The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ * The Social Science Data Archive: http://dataarchives.ss.ucla.edu/ * Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research: https://ciser.cornell.edu/data/data-archive/


See also

*
Data bank In database management and information architecture, a data bank or databank is a repository of information about one or more subjects, that is, a database which is organized in a way that facilitates local or remote information retrieval and is abl ...
*
Data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...
*
Data curation Data curation is the organization and integration of data collected from various sources. It involves annotation, publication and presentation of the data such that the value of the data is maintained over time, and the data remains available for re ...
*
Digital curation Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. This is often accomplished ...
*
Digital preservation In library and archival science, digital preservation is a formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable. It involves planning, resource allocation, and application of preservation methods an ...
*
Open Data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...


Cited references


Further reading

* Clubb, J., Austin, E., and Geda, C. "'Sharing research data in the social sciences.'" In ''Sharing Research Data'', S. Fienberg, M. Martin, and M. Straf, Eds. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1985, 39-88. * Geraci, D., Humphrey, C., and Jacobs, J. ''Data Basics''. Canadian Library Association, Ottawa, ON, 2005. *Heim, Kathleen M. "Social Scientific Information Needs for Numeric Data: The Evolution of the International Data Archive Infrastructure." ''Collection Management'' 9 (Spring 1987): 1-53. * Martinez, Luis & Macdonald, Stuart
"'Supporting local data users in the UK academic community'"
''Ariadne'', issue 44, July 2005. * See th

for articles tracing the history of data libraries and its relationship to the archivist profession, going back to the 1960s and '70s up to 1996. * Se

articles from 1993 to the present, focusing on data libraries, data archives, data support, and information technology for the social sciences.


External links


University of California Irvine Machine Learnimg Repository


Associations


IASSIST
(International Association for Social Science Information and Service Technology)
DISC-UK
(Data Information Specialists Committee—United Kingdom)
APDU
(Association of Public Data Users - USA)
CAPDU
(Canadian Association of Public Data Users) {{Data Information technology Digital libraries Types of library