Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists

This is a slightly modified version of the slides that were presented at the Scientific Archives Workshop hosted by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) on November 1-2, 2016. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been given to the management and preservation of research data an...

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Main Author: Barrett, Creighton
Format: Conference Object
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10222/72276
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spelling ftdalhouse:oai:DalSpace.library.dal.ca:10222/72276 2023-05-15T15:19:19+02:00 Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists Barrett, Creighton 2016-11-09T04:03:10Z http://hdl.handle.net/10222/72276 en eng http://hdl.handle.net/10222/72276 Licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ CC-BY-NC-SA Personal archives Scientific archives Presentation 2016 ftdalhouse 2021-12-29T18:17:29Z This is a slightly modified version of the slides that were presented at the Scientific Archives Workshop hosted by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) on November 1-2, 2016. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been given to the management and preservation of research data and scholarly publications. National and international initiatives are slowly improving access to the data and publications produced through public research funding. These efforts have given new critical roles to librarians and archivists working to acquire, manage, and preserve information in all disciplines, but especially in the sciences and social sciences. Less attention, however, has been given to the personal archives of researchers who produce this scientific material. Policymakers can mandate the deposit of research data and publications produced through research grants but what then becomes of the ancillary records such as correspondence, gray literature, photographs, media coverage, and teaching material? Do the definitions of “research data” and “publication” define the boundary of scientific archives? What standards and best practices should be applied to the analog and digital personal archives of scientists? This presentation will address these questions and other challenges faced by archivists working with scientific material by considering several case studies from the Dalhousie University Archives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Computer punch tape containing fish and bacteria data collected in the early 1960s was recently re-discovered during a comprehensive collections assessment for digital records. A recent mass digitization project enabled the online dissemination of the personal archives of the late oceans policy expert Elisabeth Mann Borgese. In 2015, web archiving tools were used to capture research data produced by the late Ransom Myers, a world-renowned marine biologist and mathematician. In 2016, the Archives acquired hundreds of floppy disks and several hard drives as part of the personal archives of the late Bill Freedman, an environmental scientist who studied the effects of economic activity on ecosystems and biodiversity in the Canadian Arctic and boreal and temperate forests. These case studies will illustrate the fuzzy boundary of scientific archives and highlight some of the current approaches used by the Dalhousie University Archives to acquire and preserve the personal archives of Canadian scientists, including web archiving, digital forensics, digitization, and standards-based cataloguing and preservation activities. The presentation will underscore the importance of personal archives to the long-term preservation of scientific research data and scholarly publications. This workshop presentation was funded by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Dalhousie University Libraries, and the Council of Nova Scotia Archives. Conference Object Arctic Dalhousie University: DalSpace Institutional Repository Arctic Canada Myers ENVELOPE(170.033,170.033,-72.117,-72.117)
institution Open Polar
collection Dalhousie University: DalSpace Institutional Repository
op_collection_id ftdalhouse
language English
topic Personal archives
Scientific archives
spellingShingle Personal archives
Scientific archives
Barrett, Creighton
Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists
topic_facet Personal archives
Scientific archives
description This is a slightly modified version of the slides that were presented at the Scientific Archives Workshop hosted by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) on November 1-2, 2016. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been given to the management and preservation of research data and scholarly publications. National and international initiatives are slowly improving access to the data and publications produced through public research funding. These efforts have given new critical roles to librarians and archivists working to acquire, manage, and preserve information in all disciplines, but especially in the sciences and social sciences. Less attention, however, has been given to the personal archives of researchers who produce this scientific material. Policymakers can mandate the deposit of research data and publications produced through research grants but what then becomes of the ancillary records such as correspondence, gray literature, photographs, media coverage, and teaching material? Do the definitions of “research data” and “publication” define the boundary of scientific archives? What standards and best practices should be applied to the analog and digital personal archives of scientists? This presentation will address these questions and other challenges faced by archivists working with scientific material by considering several case studies from the Dalhousie University Archives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Computer punch tape containing fish and bacteria data collected in the early 1960s was recently re-discovered during a comprehensive collections assessment for digital records. A recent mass digitization project enabled the online dissemination of the personal archives of the late oceans policy expert Elisabeth Mann Borgese. In 2015, web archiving tools were used to capture research data produced by the late Ransom Myers, a world-renowned marine biologist and mathematician. In 2016, the Archives acquired hundreds of floppy disks and several hard drives as part of the personal archives of the late Bill Freedman, an environmental scientist who studied the effects of economic activity on ecosystems and biodiversity in the Canadian Arctic and boreal and temperate forests. These case studies will illustrate the fuzzy boundary of scientific archives and highlight some of the current approaches used by the Dalhousie University Archives to acquire and preserve the personal archives of Canadian scientists, including web archiving, digital forensics, digitization, and standards-based cataloguing and preservation activities. The presentation will underscore the importance of personal archives to the long-term preservation of scientific research data and scholarly publications. This workshop presentation was funded by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Dalhousie University Libraries, and the Council of Nova Scotia Archives.
format Conference Object
author Barrett, Creighton
author_facet Barrett, Creighton
author_sort Barrett, Creighton
title Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists
title_short Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists
title_full Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists
title_fullStr Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists
title_full_unstemmed Beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of Canadian scientists
title_sort beyond the research data: acquiring and preserving the personal archives of canadian scientists
publishDate 2016
url http://hdl.handle.net/10222/72276
long_lat ENVELOPE(170.033,170.033,-72.117,-72.117)
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