Biodiversity report for the university of otago Library

the first part of Gillian Elliot's report can be found here: http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/pdf/2008_OBDMP_questionnaire.pdf it will be one of 4 reports outlining her findings of the interviews she has conducted with researchers "with an interest in biodiversity" from the following departments: Biochemistry; Chemistry; Clothing and Textiles; Design Studies; Geography; Geology;
HEDC9; History; Information Science; Law; Management; Maori Studies; Maths;
Philosophy; Political Studies; Surveying and Tourism (page 7). One notable part of the summary findings was the fact that researchers are working very closely upon their own data, and applying their own metadata, the result of this is likely to be considerable variations in how they apply metadata, emphasis upon which elements are used is likely to differ. Whether researchers would be interested in a more standardised approach to applying metadata is outside the scope of this report. Another aspect of note is whether researchers have a data management plan in place or not, few respondents did, others cited time constraints, although many expressed interest, also others were unclear about this. (pg.33)

Another aspect I found interesting was low amount of respondents who deposit data into a repository. One way of extending this in a report would be to investigate the reasons why they do not. Gillian Elliot's report suggests there are wider concerns than merely copywright, and ownership issues.

Methodology focus

While I have made a small start on the second assignment, I need to decide what specific area I should focus on. I'm not sure whether to take a very broad look at what researchers (academic, governmental, commercial?) are doing, or narrow it down to specific types of researchers and subjects. I will be meeting with the biodiversity co-ordinator at my work to discuss how that project has been going, but from what I understand, their focus has been largely life sciences (and some physical sciences?) but I will have to find out more.

The literature review turned up a lot of information about what social science researchers are also doing as well as the fact they are seeking to utilise institutional repositories to organise and store data they find as well. This might (and only maybe) more relevant in a LIS setting. I think you could probably go a bit mad with this though...