Collections Discovery and Curation Behavior

Summary:  View help for Summary The study uses the data curation profiling (DCP) method to capture all actions across the data lifecycle. Participants responded to these open-ended questions that relate to aspects of the data lifecycle–the accession, organization, storage, and use of their collections. The purpose of this study is to understand the curation perceptions and behaviors of physical collection managers across domains to inform cross-disciplinary research data management. Ten focus groups were conducted with thirty-two participants across several physical collection communities. Participants responded to open-ended questions that relate to the entire data lifecycle for their physical objects. Results indicated that physical collections attempt to use universal metadata and data storage standards to increase discoverability, but interdisciplinary physical collections and derived data reuse require more investments to increase reusability of these invaluable items. This study concludes with a domain-agnostic reuse facets matrix to inform investment in cyberinfrastructure tools and services.

Sampling:  View help for Sampling Purposive recruitment occurred through personal contacts from related projects and organizations that focus on understanding and improving discovery, access, use, and curation of physical research objects across several domains. A total of thirty-two participants from several physical sample communities participated in ten focus groups (https://isamplesorg.github.io/home/). Snowball recruitment led to participant managers of physical collections across disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, botany, geology, ichthyology, entomology, herpetology, and paleontology. The participants were not part of the research team, but all full-time physical collection managers working at institutions housing and making access possible for other reusers.

Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)