This diagram was hurriedly conceived in an attempt to depict findings of Purdue Libraries' interdisciplinary research initiative in 2006. Dean James Mullins was about to attend an ARL/NSF workshop and Scott Brandt sketched the graphic to illustrate three things: 1) interconnections of research and publication points, 2) a growing change in where librarians interacted along such a continuum, and 3) the challenge that "cyber enabled environments" present in working with researchers and data.

1. Interconnections of research and publication points: Since about the time of the Web's impact on disseminating information, alternatives to traditional publishing began to grow. But until recently, librarians, as both users and enhancers of information, have been involved more at the "finished end" of the path, in finding and retrieving information, using secondary and tertiary sources to published works, both print and electronic. Now there are changes in traditional publishing, alternatives to traditional publishing (such as Open Access journals), and an increase in making unpublished work (preprints, reports, findings, etc.) available through repositories. In addition, many researchers have been seeking ways to expose or share their data, whether as "published" datasets in regional or discipline or publisher archives, or even share "raw" data through personal websites, blogs, etc.
2. Librarians, as noted, have worked a lot at the "finished" end of the spectrum, but have found themselves working further and further upstream. More recently, many librarians have become advocates of OA journals, have participated in preprint archive sites, and/or host repositories for a variety of research materials. And in thoughtful consideration of (or reaction to) pleas for help in organizing and managing data from researchers, librarians are now finding themselves in position to apply library science expertise in organizing, collecting, sharing, archiving and preserving data collections. As of 2006 this was pretty much considered a pioneering area in which to delve, but with the NSF DataNet solicitation in 2007, more librarians began sitting up and taking notice that could be a role for librarians in this space.
3. The DataNet solicitation*, and especially the collaborative, integrated iCenter vision (http://www.lib.purdue.edu/info/greer.ppt#308,47,Slide 47) espoused by Chris Greer, former Program Director for the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at NSF, raises many issues about cyberinfrastructure, data and eResearch. Is there more than one answer to the question of who can/should share/preserve data? Given what seems to be most people's aversion to uniformity and standardization, it's likely that multiple solutions will pop up... which may be okay, if they all play well together!
   
   *http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf07601/nsf07601.htm