this paper investigates the current state of data curation activities and existing
curation support for faculty and graduate students in the sciences at the University
of Colorado Boulder. Data curation is “the management and preservation
of digital data over the long-term”2 and is a growing topic in library science. Grounded
in the growing body of literature of related surveys and needs assessments, this case
study explores needs, although it is not a detailed needs assessment. Rather, its intent
is to gauge researcher receptivity to library involvement in scientific data curation so
that partnerships between the library and scientists can be strategically developed.
Conclusions drawn from this research are applicable to any academic library seeking
to provide data curation support to scientific researchers.
The authors interviewed researchers and conducted a qualitative analysis of the
interviews in order to develop personas. Personas allow for anonymization and aggregation of ethnographic research, in this case, interviews. They are used to personalize
and strengthen the tie between a systems designer and the target user. The study culminated
in the development of eight personas that embody the aggregated attributes of
faculty and graduate student researchers who were interviewed. The authors analyzed
the interviews and created the personas to represent the range of attitudes and needs
regarding the type of datasets created, existing data storage and maintenance support,
disciplinary culture or personal feelings on data sharing, and receptivity to the library’s
role in data curation.