May 03 2017 - The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) announced today the signing of an agreement that will see both organizations work together to identify and advance regional and national issues relating to the data discovery, management and digital preservation needs of the Canadian research community.
This agreement brings together research data management expertise from CARL’s Portage Network and digital preservation expertise from OCUL’s Scholars Portal to work together on identifying areas of integration and interoperability across systems supporting research data in Canada.
This agreement will enable OCUL member institutions to assemble effective workflows for access to and preservation of research data, while at the same time leveraging this community’s expertise to advance Portage’s goal of building nationwide communities of practice related to the long-term preservation of research data. Consequently, CARL and OCUL will work together to enhance communications and cooperation for effective OCUL-wide engagement with Portage, especially for OCUL members who are not currently CARL members. The agreement will also help to foster ongoing collaboration between Portage and OCUL’s Scholars Portal service in important areas such as long-term preservation storage, data management and publishing services such as Dataverse, and data discovery.
The agreement comes during OCUL’s 50th anniversary year. “Our member libraries have been working together in support of Ontario’s research and teaching communities since 1967” explained Vivian Lewis, OCUL Chair and University Librarian at McMaster University. “Research data management is increasingly important to the scholarly record, and university libraries are well placed to contribute to best practice and preservation in this field. OCUL and Scholars Portal are looking forward to expanding our collaboration beyond Ontario by working with our network partners across Canada.”
Chuck Humphrey, Director of the CARL Portage Network, stated, “We are excited by this working relationship with OCUL and by the joint commitment it makes on behalf of both organizations to support academic library initiatives in research data management and digital preservation. Together we are building a community of practice for scholarly digital content in Canada's universities.”
About CARL and Portage
CARL provides leadership on behalf of Canada’s research libraries, promotes effective and sustainable knowledge creation, dissemination, and preservation, and enhances its members’ capacity to advance research and higher education. CARL members include Canada’s 29 largest university libraries and two federal institutions. CARL has launched Portage, comprising a library-based network of expertise on Research Data Management (RDM) and national platforms for planning, preserving, and discovering research data.
About OCUL and Scholars Portal
OCUL is a consortium of Ontario’s 21 university libraries. Its strength lies in its commitment to work together to maximize collective expertise and resources. OCUL has been collaborating since 1967 to enhance information services in Ontario and beyond through collective purchasing and shared digital information infrastructure, collaborative planning, advocacy, assessment, research, partnerships, communications, and professional development. Scholars Portal is a service of OCUL provided to libraries in Ontario under a service agreement with the University of Toronto Libraries, where Scholars Portal is located. Its research data management and digital preservation services include Scholars Portal Dataverse and the Ontario Library Research Cloud.
Contacts:
Chuck Humphrey
Director, Portage
chuck.humphrey@ulberta.ca
780-492-9216
Susan Haigh
Executive Director, CARL
susan.haigh@carl-abrc.ca
613-482-9344 x 101
John Barnett
Executive Director, OCUL
john.barnett@ocul.on.ca
416-946-0578
