Academic libraries have a critical role to play as data quality hubs on campus, based on the need for increased data quality to sustain "e-science," and on academic libraries' record of providing curation and preservation services as part of their mission to provide enduring access to cultural heritage and to support scholarly communication. Research data is shown to be sufficiently at risk to demonstrate a clear niche for such services to be provided. Data quality measurements are defined, and digital curation processes are explained and mapped to these measurements in order to establish that academic libraries already have sufficient competencies "in-house" to provide data quality services. Opportunities for improvement and challenges are identified as areas that are fruitful for future research and exploration.
Originally prepared for the NSF III #1247471 "Curating for Quality: Ensuring Data Quality to Enable New Science" workshop in Arlington, Virginia (September 2012), the manuscript has since been revised and reformatted.
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