In recent years, a great deal of attention has been devoted to the role of different libraries in the federal government, university, and research institute context with regard to the potential long-term preservation, management, and provision of scientific data, and related support of services and applications for publicly-funded research. This has come at a time of rapid technological change, an enormous and accelerating increase in the amount of scientific data that is being generated, and intense financial pressures on libraries.
 
The institutional roles of libraries in the management and support of scientific data activities for research and for the broader society are one important area of focus for the National Research Council’s Board on Research Data and Information. Three of the Board’s sponsors are major federal library organizations—the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services—and they each provide a different role and perspective concerning these issues.
 
The Board’s public symposium on the afternoon of 3 June 2010 will feature presentations on this set of topics by senior managers from these three federal library organizations, as well as from the Association of Research Libraries, which has examined the role of libraries for research data in some depth and whose members are institutions with a great deal at stake in this debate. The symposium will conclude with comments by two Board members, a university professor and researcher working in the data-intensive field of geographic information and a university professor of information science. The symposium will be moderated by Prof. Michael Lesk, Chair of the Board on Research Data and Information.

Moderator: Michael Lesk, Rutgers University
 
Speakers:

Deanna Marcum, Library of Congress
The Role of Libraries in Digital Data Preservation and Access - The Library of Congress Experience
Video/Audio 38.3 MB WMV file

Betsy Humphreys, National Library of Medicine
 More Data, More Use, Less Lead Time: Scientific Data Activities at the National Library of Medicine
Video/Audio 29.4 MB WMV file

Joyce Ray, Institute for Museum and Library Services
 Libraries in the New Research Environment
Video/Audio 29.3 MB WMV file

Karla Strieb, Association of Research Libraries
 Supporting E-science: Progress at Research Institutions and Their Libraries
Video/Audio 72.0 MB WMV file

Michael Goodchild, UC, Santa Barbara
Video/Audio 19.4 MB WMV file

Christine Borgman, UC, Los Angeles
 Why data matters to librarians – and how to educate the next generation
Video/Audio 17.4 MB WMV file

Panel Discussion of Invited Speakers and Board Members
and
General discussion with the audience
 Video/Audio 37.5 MB WMV file

* Please note that there will be some delay in entering the venue because of standard security checks, so plan to arrive 10-15 minutes before the start of the session.
Additionally, due to building security requirements, participants are kindly asked to exit the building promptly at the end of the symposium.