Our Approach

At the CDL, we know that the ultimate goal of researchers is to create new knowledge. And so we embrace the entire lifecycle of knowledge creation including exploring, collecting, publishing, sharing, and saving data for use by future scholars.

Within this cycle, these activities are not fixed or time bound; some activities occur throughout the life of a digital object. That’s why we look at all of the phases of research. Since scholarly researchers both use and produce data, these data require different management strategies depending on their stage in the lifecycle.  Our programs and services are designed to support researchers regardless of whether they are experimenting with a new approach, refining their ideas or publishing the results of their work.

The CDL helps scholars

Research any topic imaginable from many pathways and discover new information through the serendipity enabled by the search, browse and access features of Melvyl®, Request, UC-eLinks, eScholarship, Calisphere, and the Online Archive of California.

Plan for data management using the Data Management Planning (DMP) Tool.

Collect, acquire and organize scholarly work and data used during the course of research. Data collection is facilitated by Dash, an application that lets researchers prepare data for curation by reviewing best practice guidance for the creation or acquisition of digital research data.

Publish research (such as journals, books, working papers, postprints and seminar series) online via eScholarship. Researchers can also publish monographs with print-on-demand services via eScholarship PLUS.

Share digital cultural materials via Online Archive of California and Calisphere, generate citations, and add comments, reviews and tags to publications through the Melvyl® catalog.

Manage the entire range of content created through research activities and used for teaching with Merritt and EZID.