The pandemic and lockdown have proven that open data and the sharing of information, especially by governments, save lives and accelerate innovation, research, open science, collaboration and community engagement.
So said Prof Kanshukan Rajaratnam, director of the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University (SU), in his keynote address at the opening of the 16th SU Library Symposium held recently in Stellenbosch..png)
Themed “From hero to superhero: Agile, innovative, responsive libraries", the hybrid-format symposium had a line-up of various international experts in the field of library and information science, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and research. They shared their experiences of how academic libraries responded to the COVID-19 lockdown and continued delivering library services to help their institutions successfully complete the 2020 academic year.
Before the pandemic, academic libraries globally were in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with universities gradually shifting teaching, learning and research to cyberspace. The lockdown accelerated these processes and saw libraries implementing advanced technology for online service provision in record time, said Rajaratnam.
Yet, Rajaratnam added, the pandemic and lockdown had both a positive and negative impact. On the positive side, it brought more opportunities for innovation such as implementing advanced technology for online library service provision and supplying open data. On the downside, however, the pandemic has seen a rise in armchair epidemiologists, data scientists and bioinformaticians. Some of these “keyboard warriors" misuse data and information to push their thoughts and agendas, resulting in contradictory and often harmful messages. Open data can eliminate the misinformation spread by fake news, bad data and bad science, while advancing greater transparency, Rajaratnam said.
However, despite the key role of quality accessible data, especially in unprecedented situations such as pandemics and other societal threats, some researchers and governments remain reluctant to make their data freely available. In some instances, they fear data misuse or are governed by restrictive data policies and regulations. In addition, many people still fail to comprehend the benefits of open data.
Proposing possible solutions to encourage more open data, Rajaratnam said academic libraries and higher education institutions were best placed and equipped to become open-data custodians. Many of these institutions already have access to the necessary infrastructure and systems to manage, store, preserve and supply the data, he explained.
Prof Robert Kiley, head of Open Research at the Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom, echoed Rajaratnam's sentiments and confirmed researchers' calls for more data sharing over the past years. “The benefits of data sharing became clear during the pandemic when data saved people's lives," he said. Kiley pointed out that data about the COVID-19 outbreak, symptoms and prevention methods not only served to inform individuals, but also accelerated the development of vaccines and therapies. “The bottom line is that research results and data are public goods and should be available to all in order to accelerate science," Kiley said..JPG)
Mrs Ellen Tise, senior director of SU's Library and Information Service, who welcomed participants at the symposium, says libraries rose from mere heroes to superheroes in shifting their service offering online since the start of the pandemic. “The symposium was important for libraries to share how they had utilised various technologies to survive the COVID-19-enforced lockdowns, and to peek into the future of academic libraries," she says. “The event was also an affirmation of our user-centric technology-driven strategies at the SU Library. Listening to the various speakers, I got a sense that we are indeed on the right path."
The SU Library will use the information shared at the symposium to fill in gaps in library services and offerings, forge new partnerships, particularly in the field of data science, and strengthen its technological capabilities. “We want to remain a step ahead of the rest," says Tise. “We will accelerate our open-access initiatives to ensure that data and research outputs are as freely accessible as possible. And we will look at new possibilities for the application of intelligent systems such as robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence for some of our functions."
Pictures of Prof Kanshukan Rajaratnam and Mrs Ellen Tise
Photographers: Bronwyn Bruton and Sandra Mulder