Making the transition from text to data repositories

Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources (SULAIR) has been a national leader in developing repository strategies for digital text and image files. Stanford University Libraries began work on long-term preservation and access to geospatial data over five years ago after being awarded a Library of Congress grant through the National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation Program (NDIIPP). The desire to build on this expertise led to an initiative two years ago to develop a strategy for acquiring, preserving, managing and providing services for a broader range of scientific and technical data. Progress to date has included: a better understanding of the issues related to managing scientific and technical data; technical solutions for ingesting, storing and providing access to data; and, approaches to partnering with Stanford’s academic community. This presentation will provide program and technical details on SULAIR’s current strategy for managing scientific and technical data, summarize the challenges we anticipate in developing a comprehensive data program, and – we hope – initiate a discussion of areas in which universities with similar interest could form collaborations to develop programs and protocols