Situation in South Africa — outcome of Ne

Situation in South Africa - outcome of Ne. DIC Investigation Workshop: Longevity of digital research output Roy Page-Shipp

Looking Back (1) • SARIS Study: 2004 • Its about more than Access to Information • Connectivity enables new, more powerful, collaborative modes of Research • Various descriptors: e. Research, e. Science, Cyberinfrastructure, Digital Research • Includes: Affordable - Online (Open) access to Publications, High Bandwidth Data Exchange, Digital Data Curation, High Performance/Grid Computing

Proposed Structure for e. Research Support Service for SA SARIS 2005 e. Research Board Governance & Management Model e. Research Development & Innovation Future e. Research activities Function Activities • Open Access (Standards, common software, institutional repositories) • The e. Research Librarian (Training and re-orientation) • Digital Curation Services (Standards, software, marketing & training services) Lead Users Forum e. Research Service Delivery Immediately • ISP functions • Web Access Framework – e. Research Portal • Data Transfer and Sharing (processes and protocols, 3 As, helpdesk) Who will ‘own’ this? Innovative services move to Service Delivery • NRe. N Management & Access Support • SASLI+ Ongoing cost reduction and efficiency improvement Usually sub-contracted to competent agents in the system

Looking Back (2) – the Good News • Many flourishing examples of e. Research • Globally connected activities employing global standards – eg Bioinformatics, Biodiversity Spatial eg GEOSS, …. . • Lots of Open Access to Journals • ASSAf tackles SA research publication • Institutional Digital repositories emerging, some coordination activities (e. IFL, Nexus) • Portal Access widespread • Increasing publication of web links to data to support research publications

Looking Back (2) – Good News (ctd) • HPC in place – UCT/Meraka Centre • SANRe. N close, implementation via TENET • DST tackles responsibilities re OECD Guidelines on Access to Research Data • Role of Government-generated data emerges Stats SA mandate, DWAF, Do. H, DPLG (DBSA) • Standards and processes are domain specific • ADCC • ….

Who’s taking the lead? • (Former) librarians/ information specialists/information scientists!!

The Bad News Special Plea: Tell me I’m wrong!

Looking Back (3) – the Bad News • No Team SA approach – the digital divide widens • Attracting Research Funds requires special effort • No (researcher-driven) Governance structure to manage funding applications and co-ordination • SANLIC - (son of) SASLI not empowered • No common source of innovation or expertise in data management • Inadequate (re)training for new challenges • Not enough networking on common problems • Huge (stubborn) diversity in standards for local/national government data collection • …

Missing Elements? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. A common place for curation of outputs (data & reports) from researchers with no institutional facility (inc govt) Ready access to very functional and intuitive but low-cost infrastructure – no researchers should spend lots of time on information or data management and distribution Accessible practices and standards, matched to their research domain, for newcomers to Data Curation Coordinated development of 2 and 3. Skilled staff to fulfill the role in Data Curation that librarians have filled in Information Curation – some of whom could be multi-skilled librarians. Research to keep up to date with international developments in data management/curation – and to enable persistent access despite media obsolescence Researcher-centric governance and development Back-up beyond the life of the institutional repository

Ne. DIC Network for Data and Information Curation

Ne. DIC 2 • Governance – By the research community • Structure – Network – Support Node – Major activities in most natural hosts – Partnerships – Leaders and upcomers

Ne. DIC 3 • Role – Leadership – Research and Innovation – Coordination – Policies, Systems, Process Development – Joint funding applications – Joint responses to critical issues – eg IPR – Training – at all levels and User Support – Curation – inc appraisal and technology/media upgrading – Promotion and Marketing – Back up dying repositories

Ne. DIC 4 • Scope – Information and data – Major research Inst – network/back-up – Govt Departments – networks or repository – Isolated researchers

Your task today? • • • Augment Amend Correct Improve. .