Jason (Xiao) Yu
Building Collaborative Data Services upon Dispersed Resources: A Collaboration Model for Accelerating Data Access at Indiana University

xjyu@indiana.edu

This paper presents a case study of the development of social science data services in academic and research environments. With an account of the developmental process and strategic planning of data services at Indiana University, the paper illustrates the significance of the model of collaboration in accelerating data access, and dramatizes how collaborative data services could be built upon dispersed resources to enhance numeric and spatial data access in a research university setting. The 1995 project named SCRIPT (Social Science Research Information Pathway), a collaborative effort of University Libraries and the Political Science Data Archive and Laboratory, represented a beginning in sharing expertise and resources across departments and disciplines at Indiana; and in providing networked (i.e. web) access to key social science data. While SCRIPT has not currently grown beyond its initial projects, its mission remains of primary interest to researchers and librarians throughout the university community. More units are ready to join the collaboration; numeric data services are now integrating with spatial data access. With the advances of web technology, a virtual "Social Science Data Resource Center" (to be substantiated by an agent based customizable data portal and a campus-wide collaborative committee that works primarily through electronic communications) has been called upon to serve to bring together expertise, resources and data into one virtual organizational unit. Through such a collaboration model, existing resources, staffing and disciplinary expertise can be brought to bear as leverage in enhancing data access; and while shared resources lend tremendously to this leverage, the benefit of collaboration, of having multiple disciplines and a multiplicity of representation, all but guarantees the long-term success of data services executed through such a virtual resources center.

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