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Purdue Libraries, ITaP collaborate on guide to data storage options at Purdue

  • Science Highlights

Faculty and staff from the Purdue University Libraries and ITaP have compiled a user guide highlighting the different data storage options available to the Purdue community. The guide, which is a living document that will be updated over time to reflect changes or additions to campus storage options, compares the available choices on a number of different metrics, including cost, accessibility, amount of storage available and how data is backed up.

Line Pouchard, an assistant professor of library science at the Purdue University Libraries collaborated with her colleagues, Megan Sapp Nelson and Marianne Stowell Bracke, and Preston Smith, ITaP’s director of research services and support, to put together the document.

“There are a lot of different storage options at Purdue, and there are different requirements and advantages and disadvantages for each option,” says Pouchard. “There’s no one size fits all, everybody is going to have to pick and choose which storage option corresponds best to their needs, so that’s why we decided to do this.” Smith echoes her comments, noting that the aim of the guide is to help people assess the strength and weaknesses of each option and match their individual storage needs to the options available. ITaP resources summarized by the guide include ITaP’s research data platforms Data Depot and Fortress and the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), which was developed jointly by ITaP and the Purdue Libraries, as well as Microsoft OneDrive and BoilerBackpack storage provided through ITaP.

The guide is not only a resource for Purdue faculty researchers, but also for students, staff and any other member of the Purdue community with data storage needs. In fact, questions Pouchard and her collaborators received from graduate students, such as “How do I store data related to my thesis?” and “Will my data be available to me after I graduate?” were one of the motivating factors that led to the creation of the guide.

Questions or comments about the data storage options guide should be directed to Line Pouchard, pouchard@purdue.edu, Megan Sapp Nelson, mrsapp@purdue.edu, or Marianne Stowell Bracke, mbracke@purdue.edu, at the Purdue University Libraries, 49-42900.

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