TY - JOUR
T1 - The durability and fragility of knowledge infrastructures
T2 - Lessons learned from astronomy
AU - Borgman, Christine L.
AU - Sands, Ashley E.
AU - Darch, Peter T.
AU - Golshan, Milena S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Christine L. Borgman, Peter T. Darch, Ashley E. Sands, Milena S. Golshan.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Infrastructures are not inherently durable or fragile, yet all are fragile over the long term. Durability requires care and maintenance of individual components and the links between them. Astronomy is an ideal domain in which to study knowledge infrastructures, due to its long history, transparency, and accumulation of observational data over a period of centuries. Research reported here draws upon a long-term study of scientific data practices to ask questions about the durability and fragility of infrastructures for data in astronomy. Methods include interviews, ethnography, and document analysis. As astronomy has become a digital science, the community has invested in shared instruments, data standards, digital archives, metadata and discovery services, and other relatively durable infrastructure components. Several features of data practices in astronomy contribute to the fragility of that infrastructure. These include different archiving practices between ground- and space-based missions, between sky surveys and investigator-led projects, and between observational and simulated data. Infrastructure components are tightly coupled, based on international agreements. However, the durability of these infrastructures relies on much invisible work – cataloging, metadata, and other labor conducted by information professionals. Continual investments in care and maintenance of the human and technical components of these infrastructures are necessary for sustainability.
AB - Infrastructures are not inherently durable or fragile, yet all are fragile over the long term. Durability requires care and maintenance of individual components and the links between them. Astronomy is an ideal domain in which to study knowledge infrastructures, due to its long history, transparency, and accumulation of observational data over a period of centuries. Research reported here draws upon a long-term study of scientific data practices to ask questions about the durability and fragility of infrastructures for data in astronomy. Methods include interviews, ethnography, and document analysis. As astronomy has become a digital science, the community has invested in shared instruments, data standards, digital archives, metadata and discovery services, and other relatively durable infrastructure components. Several features of data practices in astronomy contribute to the fragility of that infrastructure. These include different archiving practices between ground- and space-based missions, between sky surveys and investigator-led projects, and between observational and simulated data. Infrastructure components are tightly coupled, based on international agreements. However, the durability of these infrastructures relies on much invisible work – cataloging, metadata, and other labor conducted by information professionals. Continual investments in care and maintenance of the human and technical components of these infrastructures are necessary for sustainability.
KW - Knowledge Infrastructures
KW - astronomy
KW - scientific data
KW - stewardship
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U2 - 10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301057
DO - 10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301057
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85015260768
SN - 2373-9231
VL - 53
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology
JF - Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology
IS - 1
ER -