[Rdap] #DataRefuge for Vulnerable Climate & Environmental Data

[Janz, Margaret M]

Dear colleagues,


Since 2008, the End of Term harvest has been committed to collecting online government information that may become vulnerable as administrations change. The harvest includes government websites but also research data that have been collected and made available through government agencies. Given the vast quantity of data currently available and the very different priorities of the incoming administration, this year's harvest is a very big job.


Several institutions are planning to host data rescue events in early 2017. The goal of these events is to collect data and associated metadata and to add those data to secure repositories. An important part of this process will be to document a trusted chain of custody for these data. Researchers will need to be assured of the integrity of the data on which their work depends. This will become particularly crucial if the original copies are no longer available through government sources. One way to do this is to involve librarians who are professionally committed to maintaining accessible and trustworthy collections.


As a data librarian, there are several ways you can get involved:

  1.  Plan a #DataRescue event at your institution. We are currently developing a toolkit to help plan and orchestrate such events. Check out http://www.ppehlab.org/ or get in touch if you would like to learn more. Also let us know if you're organizing an event at http://tinyurl.com/datarefuge


  2.  Reach out to your users to see what concerns they have. You may be able to help them back up vulnerable data yourself or you may want to connect them to us. You can also direct them to our surveys about valuable datasets: http://www.ppehlab.org/datarefugesurvey

  3.  Nominate datasets to the End of Term Harvest project using this webform: http://digital2.library.unt.edu/nomination/eth2016/add/

  4.  Use the End of Term Harvest as an inspiration for data literacy workshops and teach-ins.

  5.  Tell us other ways you'd like to help at http://tinyurl.com/datarefuge


This project is complex and massive but we are very encouraged by the tremendous outpouring of support from scientists, librarians, archivists as well as the private sector. With your help, we can make valuable and trustworthy data available to researchers doing vital work.


Best,


Margaret Janz, on behalf of #DataRefuge


Scholarly Communication & Data Curation Librarian

University of Pennsylvania

Van Pelt Library Room 131

215-898-4836

<http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-6089>[1477946592446_iDicon.png] http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-6089<http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-6089>
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