OCLC Research Releases New Report on the Sustainability of Research Data Management by Libraries

The new report is titled, “If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable” and was written by Ricky Erway and Amanda Rinehart
From OCLC Research:

Some research libraries have been proactive in taking on the new role of supporting the research data management needs of researchers and the university, whereas others have been assigned this role without having sought it. Either way, additional financial or personnel resources rarely are in place to implement and sustain this activity. This brief document explores the pros and cons of seven possible funding sources. It also describes the current circumstances in seven countries outside the United States.
Highlights:

• Because some research data is a valuable university asset, institutions should build ongoing funding into their base budgets to provide resources to the units responsible for managing that asset.

• The seven funding strategies include obtaining institutional budgetary support, adding to grant budgets, charging data depositors, charging data users, establishing an endowment, using existing funding for data repository development and making do with existing budgets.

• Another option is to outsource to external data repositories, although many make no effort to meet digital preservation standards.

Direct to Full Text Report (13 pages; PDF)

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Data Files, Digital Preservation, Funding, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Open Access, Patrons and Users, Preservation