Curation Lifecycle Model Research Articles

Open-Access Theology: Introducing the <i>St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology</i>’s Digital Publishing Model

The St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (SAET) is an online multi-author reference work designed as a resource for those engaged with, or wishing to learn more about, the academic study of theology. The SAET seeks to provide a suite of comprehensive, fully open-access peer-reviewed articles with no fees or sign-up requirements. In doing so, the editors aim to improve the availability of high-quality information for readers worldwide, especially those for whom access to resources through traditional academic publishing is restricted by cost, lack of institutional affiliation, or limited library resources. This article introduces the SAET’s digital publishing model, discussing the scholarly and editorial principles that have informed the development of the project. In particular, the article examines the ways in which the SAET’s commitment to providing quality open-access scholarship has significantly shaped the project’s information management and publishing processes.Technical strategies for widening access to theological knowledge are discussed, focusing on information discovery through the Encyclopaedia’s faceted search and in-article hyperlinks, as well as available article formats (HTML and PDF). This is accompanied by an explanation of strategies for long-term curation and preservation of theological knowledge within the SAET, namely capturing and preserving conceptual information through enriched XML mark-up and embedded metadata. The SAET’s article lifecycle is then conceptualized in reference to digital curation and preservation actions described by the Digital Curation Centre’s ‘DCC Curation Lifecycle Model’, leading to conclusions about the distinctive character of the SAET article workflow, in which curation and preservation of theological knowledge is integrated into its creation and production.

RDM Compas: Building Competencies for the Professional Curation of Research Data

“RDM Compas: Research Data Management Competence Base”, consisting of an education and training centre with modular online trainings on the one hand, and a comprehensive knowledge base covering all topics of curation-specific RDM on the other hand. In addition, a certification option is envisioned for curation-specific RDM competencies. In the context of our presentation, due to the advanced state of work we want to focus on the knowledge base and present its structure and elements. The structural basis is a slightly simplified version of the Data Curation Lifecycle Model [2] offered by the UK Digital Curation Centre [3]. This lifecycle describes both the basic activities and the sequential process steps of data curation and therefore provides a helpful schema for teaching the necessary RDM competencies.

A New Lifecycle Model Enabling Optimal Digital Curation

This study recognizes the international need for a broadly applicable lifecycle model to facilitate efficient and systematic digital curation. Consequently, it has developed a generic digital curation lifecycle model, titled the d-KISTI model. This model was developed by applying content analysis and thematic coding to data collected through a two-year review of relevant literature, existing conceptual lifecycle models, and empirical investigations of KISTI’s digital curation practice. It was then refined further through consultations with many international digital curation experts. The d-KISTI model presents actions and their relationships with one another that have gone previously unacknowledged in the DCC curation lifecycle model and other existing curation models. These actions and relationships, which are articulated at length within the study, reflect the rapidly changing nature of the global digital curation landscape and offer more representative curation activities to information organizations. Moreover, through its investigation and analysis of KISTI’s digital curation practices, this study contributes to existing literature on digital curation in Korea. Ultimately, the d-KISTI model seeks to optimize digital curation strategies and practices, both within Korea and internationally, and, moreover, hopes to serve as a foundational touchstone for future studies on digital curation.

Research Librarians' Experiences of Research Data Management Activities at an Academic Library in a Developing Country

University libraries have archaeologically augmented scientific research by collecting, organizing, maintaining, and availing research materials for access. Researchers reckon that with the expertise acquired from conventional cataloging, classification, and indexing coupled with that attained in the development, along with the maintenance of institutional repositories, it is only rational that libraries take a dominant and central role in research data management and further their capacity as curators. Accordingly, University libraries are expected to assemble capabilities, to manage and provide research data for sharing and reusing efficiently. This study examined research librarians' experiences of RDM activities at the UON Library to recommend measures to enhance managing, sharing and reusing research data. The study was informed by the DCC Curation lifecycle model and the Community Capability Model Framework (CCMF) that enabled the Investigator to purposively capture qualitative data from a sample of 5 research librarians at the UON Library. The data was analysed thematically to generate themes that enabled the Investigator to address the research problem. Though the UON Library had policies on research data, quality assurance and intellectual property, study findings evidenced no explicit policies to guide each stage of data curation and capabilities. There were also inadequacies in skills and training capability, technological infrastructure and collaborative partnerships. Overall, RDM faced challenges in all the examined capabilities. These challenges limited the managing, sharing, and reusing of research data. The study recommends developing an RDM unit within the UON Library to oversee the implementation of RDM activities by assembling all the needed capabilities (policy guidelines, skills and training, technological infrastructure and collaborative partnerships) to support data curation activities and enable efficient managing, sharing and reusing research data.

Researchers' Perceptions of Research Data Management Activities at an Academic Library in a Developing Country

This study investigated researchers perceptions of RDM at the MGGL to recommend measures to enhance managing, sharing, and reusing data. The study was underpinned by the DCC Curation lifecycle model and the CCMF which enabled the investigator to employ a descriptive research design to purposively capture data from a broad cross-section of 330 researchers. The data was analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics that enabled the Investigator to answer the problem.Study findings demonstrate no explicit policies to guide each stage of data curation and capabilities. There were also inadequacies in the knowledge and skills capability, technological infrastructure and collaborative partnerships. Overall, RDM faced challenges in all the examined capabilities. These challenges limited managing, sharing, and reusing data.The study recommends establishing a CMU within the MGGL to oversee the implementation of RDM activities by assembling all the needed capabilities to support data curation activities and enable efficient managing, sharing and reusing research data

Researchers’ Perceptions of Research Data Management Activities

This study investigated researchers perceptions of RDM at the MGGL to recommend measures to enhance managing, sharing, and reusing data. The study was underpinned by the DCC Curation lifecycle model and the CCMF which enabled the investigator to employ a descriptive research design to purposively capture data from a broad cross-section of 330 researchers. The data was analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics that enabled the Investigator to answer the problem.Study findings demonstrate no explicit policies to guide each stage of data curation and capabilities. There were also inadequacies in the knowledge and skills capability, technological infrastructure and collaborative partnerships. Overall, RDM faced challenges in all the examined capabilities. These challenges limited managing, sharing, and reusing data.The study recommends establishing a CMU within the MGGL to oversee the implementation of RDM activities by assembling all the needed capabilities to support data curation activities and enable efficient managing, sharing and reusing research data

Updating the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model has played a vital role in the field of data curation for over a decade. During that time, the scale and complexity of data have changed dramatically, along with the contexts of data production and use. This paper reports on a study examining factors impacting data curation practices and presents recommendations for updating the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model. The study was grounded in a review of other lifecycle models and informed by a site visit to the Digital Curation Centre and consultation with expert practitioners and researchers. Framed by contemporary conditions impacting the conduct of research and provision of data services, the analysis and proposed recommendations account for the prominence of machine-actionable data, the importance of machine learning for data processing and analytics, growth of integrated research workflows, and escalating concerns with fairness, accountability, and transparency of data and algorithms.

Management of digital records in selected financial services parastatals in Zimbabwe

In recent years, there has been a surge of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the conduct of business. Public sector institutions in Zimbabwe have also embraced ICTs with an objective of promoting accountability, transparency and service delivery. This has increased the generation of digital records which are key in day-to-day business activities. However, the management of such records has been a challenge for most public sector institutions in most countries including Zimbabwe. Despite embracing ICTs, there have not been many changes to create a favourable environment for managing the resultant digital records. The findings reported in this research article were part of a broader study on the management of digital records in selected financial services parastatals in Zimbabwe. The study utilised the digital curation centre (DCC) curation lifecycle model as the theoretical framework of the study. This multiple case study research adopted a qualitative research approach to collect data from four purposively selected financial services parastatals in Zimbabwe using interviews, document analysis and observation as data collection tools. The study established that the financial services parastatals under investigation still lack requisite tools such as policies, guidelines and standards, adequate infrastructure and skilled manpower for effective and efficient management of digital records. In addition, the National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), which has the legal mandate of regulating records management, has not been sufficiently involved in the management of digital records due to the lack of a legal and professional framework. Therefore, the study recommends the crafting of in-house policies and guidelines for managing digital records, procurement of adequate infrastructure and the recruitment of skilled and experienced manpower, if an enabling environment for the effective and efficient management of digital records is to be created.

Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative: A Case Study

Since its creation nearly a decade ago, the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Curation Lifecycle Model has become the quintessential framework for understanding digital curation. Organizations and consortia around the world have used the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model as a tool to ensure that all the necessary stages of digital curation are undertaken, to define roles and responsibilities, and to build a framework of standards and technologies for digital curation. Yet, research on the application of the model to large-scale digitization projects as a way of understanding their efforts at digital curation is scant. This paper reports on findings of a qualitative case study analysis of Indiana University Bloomington’s multi-million-dollar Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative (MDPI), employing the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model as a lens for examining the scope and effectiveness of its digital curation efforts. Findings underscore the success of MDPI in performing digital curation by illustrating the ways it implements each of the model’s components. Implications for the application of the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model in understanding digital curation for mass digitization projects are discussed as well as directions for future research.

From compliance to curation

The University of Oxford’s institutional repository for data, Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)-Data, was launched in May 2015. This article describes a current-state assessment of ORA-Data in relation to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) policy framework on research data and offers some future directions in implementing a more systemic lifecycle approach to research data curation at the University of Oxford with reference to the Digital Curation Centre’s Curation Lifecycle Model. Insights into the attitudes and requirements of EPSRC-funded researchers at the university in relation to research data management, from a survey we conducted, are explored. Descriptive metadata and identifiers, preservation actions, access, use and reuse and community engagement are considered. ORA-Data is positioned within the wider context of Oxford’s research data management roadmap.

Research Data Integration in the Purdue Libraries

EDITOR'S SUMMARYAt the 2015 ASIS&T Research Data Access and Preservation (RDAP) Summit, panelists from Research Data @ Purdue University Libraries discussed the organizational structure intended to promote campus‐wide collaboration among diverse data specialists. Amy Barton explained her role as metadata specialist for research data and the importance of being engaged with evolving standards and best practices. As digital user experience specialist, Tao Zhang evaluated the Data Curation Profiles Toolkit, including an interview protocol librarians use to explore researchers’ data needs and a web application for researchers to create data management plans. Line Pouchard, an information specialist focusing on big data, explored the data curation lifecycle model in general and its unique aspects in the context of big data. Information specialist for molecular biosciences, Pete Pascuzzi addressed the importance of bioinformatics for data reuse and having librarians work in an embedded position with researchers.

Academic Libraries as Data Quality Hubs

Academic libraries have a critical role to play as data quality hubs on campus. There is an increased need to ensure data quality within ‘e-science’. Given academic libraries’ curation and preservation expertise, libraries are well suited to support the data quality process. Data quality measurements are discussed, including the fundamental elements of trust, authenticity, understandability, usability and integrity, and are applied to the Digital Curation Lifecycle model to demonstrate how these measures can be used to understand and evaluate data quality within the curatorial process. Opportunities for improvement and challenges are identified as areas that are fruitful for future research and exploration.

Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual

Digital preservation, a term that may be familiar to readers, covers many of the factors that place data at risk, such as technological obsolescence, digital object fragility, and data maintenance. However, Ross Harvey argues that preservation is only a part of the puzzle and much more is needed to ensure that the digital data that are created today will survive through tomorrow, and this process is called digital curation. Digital curation is defined as developing a set of techniques that address “what comes before preservation and what comes after—that is, how the data are created and how they are used before they get to an archive or library and how they will be used, and by whom, in the future” (p. xvi). Essentially, digital curation is a holistic process that looks at the entire lifecycle of the data, from creation through maintenance and in preparation for how the data may be adjusted or migrated in the future. It is about making informed decisions from the beginning to ensure useful data later on. Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual is largely based on the Curation Lifecycle Model, developed by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), a British organization that seeks to promote digital curation activities. The model describes the processes of digital curation and serves as the structure of the majority of the book, with separate chapters breaking out each step in detail. The introductory chapters frame the need for digital curation, describing cyber scholarship or data-driven scholarship and the need for cyber infrastructure to support the digital data. The author gives an overview of the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and several other relevant models and includes illustrations to show the stages that data transition through before publication and after. Finally, the term “data” is defined so the reader better understands the content that needs curation and how the term has changed due to technological advancements in recent years. Each chapter ends with a summary and a list of references, which is helpful for quick perusal and for additional research on the topic. The subsequent chapters take a much closer look at each stage of the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and describe the basic requirements of each sequential step. Curiously, the only graphical representation of the model is on the back cover of the book. Each step, and its place in the framework of the model, could have been reinforced by including a picture of the model in each chapter. However, the chapters are clearly written with sections outlined at the beginning and crucial information broken out in text boxes in the margins. Plenty of examples and/or references are provided, and uniform resource locators (URLs) are included in the text for those who are interested in learning more. The chapters break down each step of the model so as not to be overwhelming. Each chapter includes a single step, such as designing data or preserving data, so users may easily refer back to individual chapters to revisit particular areas of interest. A companion website is also available that includes checklists, templates for developing plans, and additional links. Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual is a comprehensive guide to designing, creating, describing, preserving, maintaining, and using or reusing data. This book should be useful for those looking for either a theoretical or practical approach to digital curation, as it embraces a model and standards, yet also provides instruction and many examples. Information professionals who are interested in beginning a digital project will find this book a helpful place to start.

Diatomscapes exposé: how faculty and digital librarians collaborate to promote and preserve the passion of research (CP3R) for digital future

The Digital Curation Centre Curation Lifecycle Model outlived the development of a systematic approach for preservation of images of biological silica collected from the southern part of the United States. This paper opted for an experimental approach of collaborative open-access institutional repository (OA IR) digital collection building and digital preservation strategy for Diatomscapes. Using a small representative sample of images of biological silica as a small corpus of digital data to develop, faculty and digital librarian began to collaborate to develop ways to describe, publish, promote, and preserve Diatomscapes for current and future use. This paper shows how publishing, promoting, and preserving faculty research influences faculty support of and contribution participation in OA IR development and digital preservation exploration implementation. Diatomscapes digital collections in Picasa, Flickr, and DigiTool and digital preservation via Florida Digital Archive (FDA) and MetaArchive were a few outcomes. This paper provides empirical insights on how faculty views, practise or not practise digital curation, and preservation of primary research digital content, for current and future use.

DCC DIFFUSE Standards Frameworks: A Standards Path through the Curation Lifecycle

DCC DIFFUSE Standards Frameworks aims to offer domain specific advice on standards relevant to digital preservation and curation, to help curators identify which standards they should be using and where they can be appropriately implemented, to ensure authoritative digital material. The Project uses the DCC Curation Lifecycle Model and Web 2.0 technology, to visually present standards frameworks for a number of disciplines. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is actively working with a different relevant organisations to present searchable frameworks of standards, for a number of domains. These include digital repositories, records management, the geo-information sector, archives and the museum sector. Other domains, such as e-science, will shortly be investigated.

Draft DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

Lifecycle management of digital materials can help conceptualisation of the stages required to successfully curate digital material. A number of discipline specific models, and more generally applicable standards, have been developed which can be used as a basis when planning and implementing organisational management of digital material. The generic Draft DCC Curation Lifecycle Model identifies curation actions applicable either across the whole digital lifecycle or sequentially throughout it. Domain specific models, with greater granularity, will be developed to ensure readily accessible advice.

The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

Lifecycle management of digital materials is necessary to ensure their continuity. The DCC Curation Lifecycle Model has been developed as a generic, curation-specific, tool which can be used, in conjunction with relevant standards, to plan curation and preservation activities to different levels of granularity. The DCC will use the model: as a training tool for data creators, data curators and data users; to organise and plan their resources; and to help organisations identify risks to their digital assets and plan management strategies for their successful curation.