Dissemination and Discovery of Diverse Data: Do Libraries Promote Their Unique Research Data Collections?

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries acquire and steward numeric datasets as well as large collections of image files, audio archives, digital texts, and other non-numeric resources. This article considers how a sample of libraries in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom present these collections and make them available for discovery. And, importantly, the article examines whether these non-numeric collections are positioned on the library Website as research datasets, rather than as artifacts of limited local and/or historical interest. Findings from this analysis may help collection managers and Web designers as libraries define their role in connecting users to research data.

KEYWORDS:

• Research data
• discovery
• collection management
• digital libraries
• data curation
• websites