Session: Scientific Data Archiving Practices: Past, Present, and Future

William L Anderson
Praxis101, Rye , NY , USA Co-chair CODATA Preservation TG

Archiving data for reference and re-use is a fundamental activity of, and challenge for, scientific research and development. The increasing dependence of science on computing and network technologies have made this ever more apparent. This session will feature three major presentations on data archiving practices and activities in the sciences. Geoffrey Bowker, a historian of science will present a socio-technical perspective on archiving and access practices in the sciences. His research reveals and describes preservation practices from the past, and the impact that technologies are having on scientific research practice today, as well as scenarios about the future. Liu Chuang, a GIS geographer with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborated on a recent survey on the status of scientific data archiving and access in China . This report documents and reveals much about the present state of, and future plans for, scientific data collection generation and management in China . David Giaretta, a theoretical physicist, is currently leading CASPAR, an ambitious EU project to build a framework for enabling long-term preservation of cultural, artistic, and scientific knowledge. The experiences of this project will generate, evaluate, and develop the practices that will be needed in the future. This session will provide three different views of what has been done, what is being done, and what will be needed to preserve long-term access to scientific data.