{"id":37489,"date":"2023-07-21T17:19:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T11:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37489"},"modified":"2025-08-28T17:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T11:51:37","slug":"the-changing-role-of-libraries-in-an-open-data-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/the-changing-role-of-libraries-in-an-open-data-world","title":{"rendered":"The changing role of libraries in an open data world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Libraries have always played a pivotal role in the creation, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge. While the Internet means that we are certainly less reliant on libraries than before, they still provide information and services that are vital to communities and institutions.<\/p>\n

With the advent of open data and open science, libraries must rise to face new challenges and embrace opportunities to better support their users and communities. I would like to explore some of the ways that libraries are adapting to the changing landscape of scholarly communication and share some insights into how libraries can best adapt to the shifting environment.<\/p>\n

The roles of 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century libraries<\/h2>\n

Facilitating access and discovery<\/h3>\n

Libraries have always facilitated the access and discovery of information resources. This tradition will continue in the open data age. This includes providing enhanced access to open access and open data resources, as well as helping users navigate the complex and diverse landscape of data sources and platforms. Indeed,\u00a0many librarians are reporting<\/a>\u00a0that the demand for this support is growing.<\/p>\n

Libraries go beyond acting as facilitators of access. They can also become publishers or hosts of open data by establishing institutional or disciplinary repositories, building open data infrastructures, and digitizing their collections. For example, the National Institute of Informatics (NII) in Japan, which has both acted as a library and produced software to facilitate the work done by libraries, provided\u00a0NII-ELS<\/a>\u00a0data repository, which has since been rolled into Japan\u2019s\u00a0J-STAGE<\/a>\u00a0service. They also produced\u00a0GakuNin RDM<\/a>\u00a0for research data management,\u00a0JAIRO Cloud<\/a>\u00a0for institutional repositories.<\/p>\n

Libraries can also leverage their expertise in metadata, cataloging, and linking to enhance the discoverability and interoperability of open data. For example,\u00a0the Indian Statistical Institute Library<\/a>\u00a0uses DSpace software to create metadata<\/a>\u00a0records for open data sets hosted on various platforms, such as Data.gov.in, Open Government Data Platform India, and World Bank Open Data .<\/p>\n

Data management and curation<\/h3>\n

Libraries are also increasingly providing data management and curation<\/a>\u00a0services for their users. This involves helping researchers plan, organize, document, store, preserve, and share their data throughout the research lifecycle.<\/p>\n

Libraries can offer guidance and support on various aspects of data management, such as developing management plans, choosing appropriate data formats and standards, applying metadata schemas and identifiers, selecting suitable data repositories or platforms, complying with funder or publisher policies, and licensing data for reuse.<\/p>\n

Libraries can also directly assist researchers in curating their data to ensure its quality and usability over time. This may include activities such as validating, cleaning, transforming, annotating, enriching, linking, or archiving data.<\/p>\n

For example, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) provides a\u00a0comprehensive range of data management and curation services\u00a0<\/a>for researchers in Korea. Their data curation initiative provides a platform for hosting data, services for data curation, and consulting services.<\/p>\n

Data literacy and training<\/h2>\n

Librarians have considerable data literacy skills. They can apply these skills to provide data literacy and management training for their users. Such training can help researchers develop the skills and competencies to more effectively find, evaluate, use, create, and communicate with data.<\/p>\n

Libraries can offer various types of data literacy programs, such as workshops, webinars, tutorials, guides, or certificates. Such initiatives are not only useful for researchers, they can also be of great value to the public at large. In recent years, information literacy is\u00a0emerging as a crucial topic<\/a>\u00a0in public policy.<\/p>\n

For example, the\u00a0National Library Board<\/a>\u00a0in Singapore offers a well-curated collection of data literacy resources, workshops, and school courseware to the public, known as the\u00a0S.U.R.E. Campaign<\/a>. These resources aim to equip all citizens with the basic knowledge and skills to understand, interpret, communicate with, and make sense of data in everyday life to use it effectively and avoid misinformation.<\/p>\n

Data visualization and analysis<\/h2>\n

Libraries can also provide data visualization training and services. Indeed,\u00a0virtually all universities offer<\/a>\u00a0software, resources, and services pertaining to data visualization. Helping researchers understand and use these tools can help researchers explore, understand, and communicate their data more effectively.<\/p>\n

Libraries can offer access to and training for various types of software and hardware for data visualization and analysis. Examples include:<\/p>\n