Farrell, Shannon L.

Kelly, Julie

Mastel, Kristen L.

University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy

Drawers, shelves & boxes full of data: 
Status of analog life sciences data and 
solutions for the future Shannon L. Farrell, 
Kristen L. Mastel & 
Julia A. Kelly
What about older, non-digital data?
Impetus for this project was faculty approaching us for help with 100-year 
old potato breeding records
○ What to do with this data was not clear: Does it belong to Archives? 
Should it stay in the department?
○ Horticulture faculty wanted the Libraries to have it
We know there is analog data on campus
Who have we talked to?
Project in University Archives

Inventory elements
○ Collection name, # of boxes 
○ Box number and 
folder/bound item name
○ Physical format of data
○ Creator/author of data
○ Description of topic of data
○ Location of where data was 
taken
○ Numeric or descriptive
○ Amount of raw data (pages, 
etc.)
○ Are variables decipherable?
○ Is there description of 
methods?
○ Does summary data exist?
○ Could you repeat the work?


Reusability of data
○ Over 49,000 pages of data in 672 items
○ 140 or 21% describe their methods
○ 239 or 36% could probably be repeated
○ 628 or 94% had data of potential value 
○ 88% were at least partly handwritten
Survey purpose 
○ Explore how much analog data exists in 
laboratories, oﬃces, departments, research 
centers, and ﬁeld stations
○ Discover how researchers are currently using, 
storing, and planning for the future of the data
Survey participants 
○ Focused on agricultural and life sciences
○ Faculty from College of Biological Sciences & 
College of Food, Agricultural, & Natural Resources 
Sciences 
○ Sent to 774, 108 responded (14% response rate)
Questions Asked
○ How much?
○ What time frame?
○ What subject?
○ Future plans for the data?
○ Where stored?
○ Who is responsible for it?
○ Still being used? Added to?
○ Raw or processed?
○ Sensitive, conﬁdential or proprietary?
○ Been scanned? Who has access?
○ Been made machine readable?
○ Been asked to share?
○ Feelings about sharing?
○ Written documentation exists?
○ Ever reused or incorporated into a 
new study?
○ Related to physical specimens 
that are held somewhere?
“analog data is deﬁned as non-digital data, primarily in print, such as 
ﬁeld books, lab notebooks, ledgers, data sheets, photographs, maps, 
drawings/sketches, slides, and so on. It does not include physical 
specimens (e.g., soil samples, tissue samples, herbarium specimens, 
organisms), but would include any analog data describing physical 
specimens”
Deﬁnition








What happens when you leave?
I hope that 
it will be 
archived.
It will be 
destroyed.
It will stay 
physically 
associated 
with the 
collections.
As the primary investigator, 
it will come with me to wherever I 
go next if I move to another 
institution. If I retire, I don't know 
what will happen to it.
I don't know. 
We have bookshelves in the lab 
where we hold/archive the 
notebooks. I'm not sure if my 
successor will keep them.



What we’ve learned
○ There is a lot of 
analog data on 
campus
○ Data is at a risk of 
being lost 
○ Archives may not be 
the appropriate 
location to preserve 
analog data
○ Researchers are still 
using (& adding to) their 
analog data
○ Researchers want to 
share their data 
Next steps
○ Conduct interviews with faculty to:
■ discuss concerns they have about 
analog data
■ potential services they would want
■ thoughts about reuse
○ Examine solutions to increase 
access/discoverability
○ Raising awareness among scientists
This is not an isolated problem
○ Our campus is not unique
○ Analog data abounds but it is not increasing exponentially
○ Is there interest from other research universities to look at their analog 
data?
Contact Us
Shannon L. Farrell 
sfarrell@umn.edu
Julia A. Kelly 
jkelly@umn.edu
Kristen L. Mastel
meye0539@umn.edu 


Drawers, Shelves, and Boxes Full of Data: Status of Analog Life Sciences Data and Solutions for the Future

http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/11299/204786/1/STS%20Forum%202019.pdf

Drawers, Shelves, and Boxes Full of Data: Status of Analog Life Sciences Data and Solutions for the Future

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