About
What is the Data-at-Risk Inventory (DARI)?
The Data-at-Risk Inventory (DARI) is a project of the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) Data at Risk Task Group (DARTG) to create a catalog of valuable scientific data that are at risk of being lost to posterity. Examples of at-risk data include analog formats, such as loose paper documents, laboratory notebooks, photographs or glass plates, digital data stored in obsolete and deteriorating formats such as magnetic tapes or floppy disks, or any formats that face disposal due to inadequate storage. The DARI is not a repository for data. It is a descriptive inventory of endangered data that is held by others: individuals and research institutions. Our goal is for the DARI to be an initial step in identifying and locating at-risk-data.
Why?
DARI comes out of DARTG’s recognition that long-term observational scientific research depends on historical records, and that historical data can often yield new, current science, but only if the historical data is accessible and usable.
What is DARI looking for?
Currently, DARI is looking for scientists, researchers, librarians, or others who know of scientific data that could be at-risk, and are willing to contribute a description of that data to the inventory. If you are interested you can contact us or go to the “Submit a Dataset Description” page.
