Laura Molloy

Emerging good practice in managing research data and research information within UK Universities

Sound data intensive science depends upon effective research data and information management. Efficient and interoperable research information systems will be crucial for enabling and exploiting data intensive research however it is equally important that a research ecosystem is cultivated within research-intensive institutions that foster sustainable communication, cooperation and support of a diverse range of research-related staff. Researchers, librarians, administrators, ethics advisors, and IT professionals all have a vital contribution to make in ensuring that research data and related information is available, visible, understandable and usable over the mid to long term. This paper will provide a summary of several ongoing initiatives that the Jisc-funded Digital Curation Centre (DCC) are currently involved with in the UK and internationally to help staff within higher education institutions prepare to meet funding body mandates relating to research data management and sharing and to engage fully in the digital agenda.

The DigCurV Curriculum Framework for Digital Curation in the Cultural Heritage Sector

In 2013, the DigCurV collaborative network completed development of a Curriculum Framework for digital curation skills in the European cultural heritage sector. DigCurV synthesised a variety of established skills and competence models in the digital curation and LIS sectors with expertise from digital curation professionals, in order to develop a new Curriculum Framework. The resulting Framework provides a common language and helps define the skills, knowledge and abilities that are necessary for the development of digital curation training; for benchmarking existing programmes; and for promoting the continuing production, improvement and refinement of digital curation training programmes. This paper describes the salient points of this work, including how the project team conducted the research necessary to develop the Framework, the structure of the Framework, the processes used to validate the Framework, and three ‘lenses’ onto the Framework. The paper also provides suggestions as to how the Framework might be used, including a description of potential audiences and purposes .

Digital curation skills in the performing arts – an investigation of practitioner awareness and knowledge of digital object management and preservation

This study examines the digital curation awareness and practice of a sample of practitioners from the UK performing arts community. Twelve performance arts practitioners from across the United Kingdom were interviewed to establish understanding of whether, why and how they create and manage digital objects in the course of their creative work. Detailed qualitative data from this series of one-to-one interviews about the actual and intended digital curation practices of these performance arts practitioners establish what they understand about sustainable management of digital objects, and also which digital curation activities they actually include in their working processes. This knowledge is supplemented with some preliminary exploration of the types of digital resources that are sought and used by performance arts practitioners, in order to understand whether there is a comparable appetite for the creation and for the reuse of digital objects in this field. Questions in the interview identify the sources used by practitioners when attempting to access digital objects created by others as part of research for their own creative work. This provides a ‘practitioners-eye view’ of performance collections; that is to say, the resources used by practitioners as collections for research, irrespective of the formal designation or intended purpose of such resources. Here, this enquiry is set into the broader context of digital curation and preservation. The approach to the interviewing is described, findings are discussed and the presence of possible skills and knowledge gaps is presented. Concluding remarks indicate the implications of these indicative findings for the representation of performance arts practice for current and future generations, and suggest useful future areas of enquiry.

Performances, Preservation, and Policy Implications: Digital Curation and Preservation Awareness and Strategy in the Performing Arts

Digital assets in contemporary performing arts practice may suffer damage and disappearance, eroding the record of contemporary practice. This study seeks to assess this threat and suggest solutions. We examined digital curation and preservation awareness and practice in a sample of performing arts professionals, establishing that digital objects are highly prized but levels of sustainable digital curation and preservation practice are low. We argue that competent digital curation and preservation is relevant to arts career sustainability, research, and wider cultural heritage. This article is intended to be relevant to policy and skills development in communities of creative practice beyond the academy.