Drowning in the Data Deluge: Digital Library Challenges for Asia

Scholarly communication no longer consists merely of papers and publications. Research data have become valuable objects to be captured, documented, and shared. Funding agencies are requiring “data management plans” for all new proposals. Libraries, universities, and research institutes are assessing how to manage those data in ways that can be leveraged for future value. But what are “data”? We are drowning in them without being able to define what they are. This talk will explore the shifting landscape of scholarly information, with special attention to how these shifts may influence digital libraries in Asia. Research is disseminated by many formal and informal means, not only by libraries and publishers but also by new media such as preprint repositories and tweets. Access may be faster – if one can separate signal from noise amidst the plethora of communication channels. These changes are the result of the transition from a closed scholarly world to the open Web, the shift in content and context of networked information, the shift in focus from information services for readers to those for authors, and differences between publications and data. If future scholars are to use the scholarly content of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, the digital library community must reclaim information retrieval, rethink partnerships throughout the information life cycle, share responsibility for the information infrastructure, and address policy and incentive issues.