Unfolding Research Data Services: An Information Architecture Perspective

With the exponential growth in digital research data, libraries are beginning to find opportunities to assist researchers with planning, maintaining, sharing, and accessing data through research data services. Using a content analysis with the lens of information architecture, this study sought to better understand how these services are organized in North American academic library websites and to what extent the research data lifecycle is supported within research data services. 50 academic library websites were studied and results yielded three provisions that make up research data services: Information Access, Technical Support, and Personalized Consultation. The data lifecycle was found to be strongly supported in research data services for planning, data curation, and data access stages.