Project

The UCSB Libraries, with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, are investigating the current state of campus informatics initiatives and the potential for collaboration. In an environment where academic computing is largely decentralized, we are seeing a flowering of discipline-specific applications that involve the integration of large and disparate forms of data (numeric, textual, image, spatial), and of tools for synthesis, modeling, trend analysis, mapping, image processing and the like.

Our main objective in this study is to explore the data management and analysis needs that have led to the systems developed by various technologically innovative faculty members, mostly though not exclusively in the sciences.

Specific questions include whether these various informatics schema include provisions for metadata creation, long-term digital archiving, intellectual property rights management, data exchange and adherence to technical standards. An important facet of this project is to focus on commonalities, weaknesses, and strengths of the programs, to seek potential efficiencies in technical support or areas for collaborative development of new tools.

It is hoped that the research findings will help advance discussions of the current state of informatics needs and uses among faculty at UCSB and explore the roles of the academic departments, the information technology units, the library, and even disciplinary societies, in providing the support for these issues and the impetus to move forward on campus.