Scientific Data and Social Science Data Libraries

Abstract

There is a vast amount of quantitative information available in electronic form. Social science data makes up less than half that amount. The other, larger half is scientific data. While university libraries have made a considerable investment in social science data, little has been done about scientific data. If administrators, librarians, or others believed that more attention should be paid to scientific data, one of the suggestions that might naturally arise is that social science data specialists should be involved. Though some common ground between these areas should be acknowledged, the existence of very substantial differences must also be recognized. Those differences are especially significant because coping with them will require an investment of staff and financial resources by the data library.