Preserving hard-earned data – It Takes a Library
How can Anne Abels preserve her research data for researchers even after her doctorate at ETH Zurich? Thanks to Mohamed El-Saad from the ETH Library, she found a good way.
Anne gets off her bike and walks up to the villa on Weinbergstrasse. Here she meets with Mohamed El-Saad, data archivist at the ETH Library’s ETH Data Archive. They discuss how best to preserve the data Anne has collected over the years.
Back in the laboratory on Hönggerberg she says, "It would be great if I could preserve the data I have worked so hard on over the past few years." She puts on her blue gloves, opens the fume hood and picks up a tiny glass jar. Inside is a yellowish powder. "I do synthetic inorganic chemistry", she says, holding the jar, "and I really like holding a compound in my hand for the first time."
Anne uses a variety of instruments in her research and has accumulated a lot of data over the years. Plus, her research group is being disbanded because her professor is retiring, and she’s wondering if there is a way to preserve this data.
Thanks to the ETH Library, the determined researcher found a way to make her data available to the next generation of researchers.
Get to know the services and support of the ETH Library related to research data management and long-term preservation:
It Takes a Library
- "It Takes a Library" is a three-part video series focusing on the challenges encountered by researchers in today’s world.
- Each episode is a profile of a researcher, their project and the challenges they are confronted with. They each discovered that it often takes a library.
- The ETH Library offers a wide range of services and infrastructure, from managing the growing volume of information to preserving data and publishing in open-access journals.