(Week 5) [T9-1] Digital Libraries and E-infrastructures

Question 1

What is a digital library?

Answer 1

Federated structures with networks of information encoded in multimedia digital formats.

Question 2

What are the advantages of digital libraries?

Answer 2

• No physical boundary. The user of a digital library does not need to go to the library physically.
• Round the clock availability. People gain access at any time (day or night).
• Multiple accesses. The same resources can be used at the same time by a number of users.
• Structured approach. Much richer content in a more structured manner.
• Information retrieval. The user is able to use any search term in their many interfaces.
• Preservation and conservation. Copies can be made any number of times, with quality and no degradation.
• Space. Potential to store much more information than physical spaces.
• Networking. Links between resources.
• Cost. Cost is lower than maintaining a traditional library.

Question 3

What is metadata?

Answer 3

• “Data about data”, or any data associated with a resource that
  describes that particular resource.

Question 4

What is a data stewardship?

Answer 4

Data management is about organizing and taking care of a project’s data in the project’s lifetime.
Data stewardship is about doing that in such a way that the data lives and is useful forever.
Use of ID’s.

Question 5

What are the FAIR principles?
It makes sense to promote the FAIR principles for clinical data?

Answer 5

• Findable (data has rich metadata and unique id);
• Accessible (data can be easily downloaded);
• Interoperable (metadata use an accessible and standard language);
• Reusable (data well-described and provides licences).

Yes, relevant for research, and facilitate healthcare provision.

Data should be personal and sensitive, but the FAIR principles have provisions for authentication.