Written by Tom Hunt – Association of Local Environmental Records Centres
The NBN Gateway version 5 has been up and running for a while now and has provided an opportunity for organisations to easily submit data requests and enable data sharing. From an LERC point of view, this makes their data more accessible, and indeed will also provide an easier opportunity for national datasets to be shared at a local level. However with new opportunities come new risks, and it is important to be aware of these in order to get the most out of the NBN Gateway 5.
ALERC members have received a lot of requests recently, all of which are welcome, but not all of which will have received a positive response from the point of view of requesters. Most of the time this a communication issue. All data providers to the Gateway submit data because they want it to be used, but they also want to know what it will be used for before providing full access. In many cases, this is because permission to upload the data has been carefully negotiated with recorders. Therefore, if you are thinking of submitting a data request to an LERC, please provide as much information as possible, particularly on what the data will be used for. In many cases, the LERC will simply be interested in a potentially new use of the data and will wish to report back to local recorders on how important their data is. It may also be the case that there are other local datasets that the LERC can provide access to that can’t currently be made available through the NBN Gateway. In these instances, the LERC may suggest sending you data through other means.
ALERC can help data users communicate with LERCs by providing contact details and circulating information to LERCs. This is particularly important if you want to access data from a lot of LERCs, and if you have a complicated or unusual reason for accessing the data. In this case, it is well worth contacting ALERC so that we can make sure you reach the LERCs you need to and allow you to provide detailed communications about what you need data for (as well as allowing questions from LERCs back the other way). It is appreciated that it can be hard to convey all the necessary information on your project using the access request forms on the NBN Gateway, so please do get in touch through ALERC or by contacting Tom direct at tom.hunt@alerc.org.uk.