To preserve or NOT to preserve data?
That is the question to ask – when it comes to historical research data.
So – yes I found some of the original research data that was collected by OAC researchers back in 1877 – BUT… do we spend the time and resources into pulling it out of the PDFs and making it accessible to the world? I know I’ve asked this question in a different way in previous posts – but it’s a question that keeps coming up.
There are definitely aspects of this question that need to be objectively reviewed:
- WHY? undertake this venture? For curiosity or because it is valuable to you as a researcher?
- HOW far back do we go? 10 yrs? 50 yrs? 150 yrs?
- WHERE will you keep this data? Hmm… that’s a big question today!
- WHO? will steward this data?
As a data geek – I want to pull this out and steward it – but I have to be practical about it as well. How much have research technologies changed over this time period? How valid is this data today? Let’s think about this in a different way. Textbooks – When we teach we update our textbooks on a regular basis since there is new materials to teach and new ways to view and teach the materials. I have Statistics textbooks going way back – 1950s – but I don’t use these to teach – I use the new updated 2025 texts. I may read the older texts to get a perspective on why or how things have changed – but I will use the newer texts as resources for my students.
Let’s go back to data. I have this cool data on weights and feed intakes of animals in the 1870s but our animals have changed over the past 150+ years. Is the historical data really of use in today’s active research projects? Probably not – unless you are a historian? See – how I can always find a way or reason to keep this data? But really, time and available resources come into play – do we have the time, money, and resources to create and preserve this data – that may or may not be of use?
Oish! I can talk circles around this! I believe that everyone will come to a point where they will need to make these types of decisions – but for today’s research data – let’s document it, and deposit into a repository – the data is relevant! Not like my 150+yr old data 🙂
