The Portage Network of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) welcomes this opportunity to respond to Industry Canada’s Consultation on Developing a Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy. This Network supports a national research data management (RDM) service to assist researchers and other RDM stakeholders through (1) a library-based network of expertise on RDM and (2) national platforms for planning, preserving, and discovering research data.
CARL and Portage strongly support Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy 2014, which includes a section promoting open science through the facilitation of “open access to publications and related data resulting from federally-funded research in order to accelerate research, drive innovation and benefit the economy”[1]. We concur with the vision that open science, including improved research data management, will maximize the public’s investment in research and lead to greater utility and impact of research.
The Canadian research library community has a long history of collaborating on cross-sectoral infrastructure, providing others with ready access to information resources. During the print era, libraries and the federal government worked cooperatively to support local access to federal publications through the Depository Services Program. More recently, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network has provided affordable access to digital full-text, searchable databases for post-secondary institutions through a national licence program with commercial publishers. Furthermore, regional library organizations provide mechanisms for sharing resources among academic libraries. This same cooperative spirit of working across sectors, with other stakeholders, and among themselves is now being applied to research data management. (Read the full report on the Portage website)
[1] Industry Canada. (2014). Seizing Canada’s Moment: Moving Forward in Science, Technology and Innovation 2014 (Catalogue No. Iu37-4/1-2014E-PDF). Retrieved from Industry Canada: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/h_07472.html
