Developing a Library Archive for Secure Data Storage

In 2019, Western Libraries was asked about potential storage options for data from a major multinational study that had been stagnating on a departmental server for a number of years. The idea of a secure library data archive was floated but despite support from Library Administration and the provision of storage space, we became mired down in endless conversations about procedure, ethics and data ownership. In 2022 an additional data crisis arose: our Research Ethics Board’s former recommended option for sharing sensitive data was being decommissioned and an unknown number of potentially restricted datasets were about to become homeless. That was the push needed and in 2023 the Library Secure Data Archive was launched. Come hear a story of data neglect, peculiar storage recommendations and The Form That Took Forever!