By IQ Editors | October 1, 2026
Dear IASSISTers,
Welcome to IASSIST Quarterly Vol. 50 No. 3 .
We open this issue thinking about Walter Giesbrecht, a valued member of the IASSIST community, who passed away on March 8, 2026, at the age of 69 in Richmond Hill, Ontario. In tribute to Walter’s life and contributions, several close friends and colleagues gathered memories and reflections shared by IASSIST members to write an in memoriam. Walter’s dedication to data librarianship, along with his leadership and commitment to the profession, continues to inspire many within our community. His legacy lives on through colleagues, students, and researchers whose work he influenced and enriched.
Walter’s commitment to improving accessto and use of research data resonates strongly with the themes explored in the articles that follow.
As the volume, variety, and complexity of research data continue to grow, researchers increasingly seek seamless experiences that enable them not only to discover and access data, but also to understand, analyze, reproduce, and reuse it. The three articles in this issue present complementary perspectives on the future of research data ecosystems, each addressing a different stage of the data lifecycle while advancing a shared vision of more interconnected, discoverable, and reusable research outputs. Collectively, these articles explore how emerging technologies, interoperable infrastructures, and collaborative service models can help lower barriers between data creation, discovery, access, and reuse.
Metadata augmentation for social science datasets using Generative AI by authors winkler [sic], Picard, Lyle, and Mani, offers an innovative solution to the challenge of efficiently curating metadata, often faced by data repository staff. The authors introduce an innovative tool that employs Generative AI technology coupled with a web application that is engineered to complement the knowledge of data curators who generate metadata for data archiving. By presenting keyword suggestions from controlled vocabularies, the tool can reduce the burden on human experts as they prepare data collection for archiving.
Dutton and Welpton describe a progressive approach to data infrastructure development, modelled as a ‘hierarchy of needs.’ In their article A data services hierarchy of needs: How should we build a national data library the authors address the complexity of the data infrastructure identified by the Future Data Services (FDS) review and offer a path for the creation of a ‘National Data Library’ (NDL) referenced by a recent UK government manifesto. The authors propose building upon existing infrastructure in the UK to create a federation of data services that will make data more discoverable and accessible.
In the article From preservation to re-execution: bridging the gap between repositories and computational reproducibility, author Vicky Rampin advocates for a research lifecycle where active preservation and active discovery and reuse are deeply interconnected through sustainable infrastructure. The author suggests integrating tools for interactive exploration and execution of complex code and analysis directly within institutional data repositories. Rampin believes that a unified approach will reduce technical barriers for secondary researchers and ensure that computational work remains both FAIR and re-executable.
We hope the semester is off to a good start and wish you a productive, successful, and rewarding academic year ahead.
Ofira Schwartz and Michele Hayslett, September 2026
Submissions of papers for the IASSIST Quarterly are always very welcome. Authors may take a look at the instructions and layout . We are available via e-mail for questions, or proposals for special issues: editor.iassistquarterly ( at ) gmail.com.