Advantages of depositing data with the History Data Service

Ensuring Preservation

The time and resources invested in the creation of digital resources can easily be placed in jeopardy because hardware and software become obsolete, and magnetic media degrade. Long-term preservation is essential if this investment is to be safeguarded. Data collections deposited with the History Data Service are preserved and migrated through changing technologies to ensure that they will be accessible in the future.

Providing Access

Many historical digital resources have significant and long-term value to the research and teaching community, and the time and resources invested in their creation can only be fully realised if they are systematically collected, preserved and disseminated. The History Data Service makes deposited data collections available for future re-use by distributing them to the research and teaching community in a range of formats and on a variety of media. Data collections deposited with the History Data Service are professionally catalogued, and information about them and any associated publications is made accessible through online catalogues.

Professional Recognition

By collecting, evaluating, cataloguing and publicising data collections the History Data Service helps to provide tangible evidence of the scholarly effort involved in data creation. Data collections deposited with the History Data Service are widely publicised, for example through workshops and online catalogues, and individual depositors gain professional recognition when their data collections are re-used in research and teaching and cited in subsequent publications.

For further advice or specific queries, contact acquisitions@esds.ac.uk.