The role of libraries in E-science

Christine L Borgman University of California Los Angeles, USA The role of libraries in E-science e-Science, also known as cyberinfrastructure or e-Research, is characterized by dataintensive, information-intensive, distributed, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research. Scholars in all fields are taking advantage of new sources of data and new means to publish and distribute their work online. Content in digital form, whether text from digitized books or data from sensor networks, can be mined to ask new questions, in new ways. However, the practices, products, and sources of data vary widely between disciplines. Some fields are more advantaged than others by the array of content now online and by the tools and services available to use it. No longer are data considered interim products to be discarded once the research reporting them is published. Rather, they have become important sources of scholarly content to be used and reused. As the demand for curation of research data accelerates, data repositories may become the new special collections for research libraries. The advent of e-Science presents an array of challenges and responsibilities for libraries, such as scalable and sustainable infrastructure, open access to publications and data, and policies for access to data and computational resources. This talk will provide an overview of developments in e- Science with specific attention to medical and health libraries.

Blip | July 1, 2008

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