UC Libraries and UC Information Technologies Partner on ARL e-Science Institute

University of Cincinnati Libraries and UC Information Technologies recently launched a partnership to take a critical look at the university’s current and future e-science agenda. Led by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) / Digital Library Foundation (DLF), the ARL e-Science Institute helps academic and research libraries develop a strategic agenda for e-research support, with a particular focus on the sciences.

The institute’s interactive modules take small teams of individuals from academic institutions through a dynamic learning process to strengthen and advance their strategy for supporting computational scientific research.

UC’s e-Science Institute Team includes Stephen Marine, assistant dean for special collections; Ted Baldwin, head of the College of Engineering and Applied Science Library; and Nelson Vincent, interim vice president for information technology and CIO, UC Information Technologies.

Thus far, the team’s work has been focused on completing a self-assessment through a series of interviews with key people in the Libraries, select teaching and research faculty, and university administrators with research portfolios. This information will be used to discover the types and extent of e-science activity at the university and to assess current library and UCIT programs that support e-science and readiness for deeper engagement.

UC Libraries dean and university librarian, Xuemao Wang, participated in the institute’s inaugural year while at Emory University and saw it as a real opportunity for UC: “UC Libraries and UCIT anticipate that participating in the ARL e-Science Institute will help us to form an institution-wide e-research strategy and launch an effort to meet the present and future research information needs of faculty and students.”

“The ARL e-Science institute is all about opportunities for e-science, informatics and big data,” said Nelson Vincent. “I am thankful to our new Dean of Libraries for bringing this idea forward and for inviting UCIT to be an important partner in the conversations that will propel UC’s e-science and e-research initiatives forward.”