Data is King

Strategische Überlegungen zum Sammelauftrag der Bibliothek im digitalen Zeitalter

Abstract

In this contribution I would like to raise the question of the importance of the library collection in a fundamental sense anew. The thesis is that in spite of the growing number of open access publications, the library collection has not lost its importance, but that it needs to be rethought under digital conditions and that libraries must turn decisively to collecting digital publications and data in order to actively shape the research infrastructure of the future.Only the datafication of existing literature on the one hand and collecting data on the other will establish the conditions for new heuristics, for text and data mining or for the training of AI. Quality-checked and curated data is the basis for the research of tomorrow. Libraries can create the necessary framework conditions by specifically building up digital collections From an organisational point of view existing worflows and processes need to be restructured internally and a new form of cooperation in the preparation of data and the building up of data union catalogues has to be established.