STEPS TO UNDERSTANDING ENTIRE RANGE OF DATA RESOURCES IN THE GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Accessing geoscience data isn’t a new issue, it has occupied me for most of my professional life as a geology liaison librarian at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. As I am also a geological researcher with a recently awarded MSc I have two different perspectives to share and they may not agree with each other! My years of experience as a liaison librarian has taught me the importance of recognizing where “old” data exists and the importance such data can have in generating new data. However, past publication trends in Geology haven’t made it easy to identify “old” data. Following the disastrous Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 – 2011 when the geological collection was severely affected, hard decisions had to be made about criteria for retaining material and the presence of data in items is now an important criteria for retention. However, there is room for improvement in providing access to geological data within present university library practices.

When I became a geological researcher generating my own data in the lab and in the field I discovered a new world of data resources outside the library walls. I discovered that “old" data was still vital to my project. I also approached individual researchers to reuse their data, used national data repositories and pondered on the question of how to make my data accessible – or not.

The general principles I wish to share from my experiences are centred on the need for geological librarians to understand the entire range of data sources in their sub-disciplines. Researchers may decide that if librarians don’t understand the importance of “old” data they may have difficulties being involved with new geoscience data storage projects.