The Local Data Support Landscape in the UK

At the session "Discovering a Profession: the Accidental Data Librarian" a presentation "Looking for data directions? – ask a data librarian" was given by Stuart Macdonald (Edinburgh University Data Library) and Luis Martinez (London School of Economics Data Library). This presentation has been turned into the article presented here: "The Local Data Support Landscape in the UK". The article focuses on specialized national data centres. They start with a tax assessment from 7th century, mentions the Domesday Book from 1086, but quickly moves on to the establishment of the start of UK Data Archive in 1967, and others to follow. The Office for National Statistics produce many key statistics used in policies as well as in research and so does "the cousin" The General Register Office for Scotland. The article describes the centers UKDA, ESDS, EDINA, MIMAS, AHDS and several more. Connections between these centers exist such as the "Data Information Specialist Committee-UK" (DISC-UK) that is a sort of national IASSIST for data librarians and data managers.