Work goes on for retired professor

Work goes on for retired professor

Among the millions of words she may have sought to categorise, preserve and give access to, retirement may not be one former University Librarian and Emeritus Professor Digital Knowledge Systems Penny Carnaby will become too familiar with.

Instead she is still ready to meet the challenge generated by the digital age of how to preserve the plethora of data academic institutions generate.

A former head of the National Library, she finished four years at the University last week, seemingly bringing down the closing curtain on a distinguished career, and says she does intend to spend some time at her Banks Peninsula property completing put-off tasks.

However, the pressing issue of the preservation of raw data is something which will also command her attention.

Different formats go out of date and become obsolete, and she says data is being lost, which is unacceptable.

“A lot of research data will also just be sitting on someone’s desktop computer. The results might be published but the raw data could yield even more in the long-run.”

Finding how to store data in a way which was constantly being updated so it was accessible was something she started at the National Library, and continued at Lincoln.

It is a huge issue, and the University has taken the lead on it, she says.

She was named emeritus professor at her retirement function, which allows her to retain the same title she had during her career.

Emeritus Professor Carnaby says it gives her a connection for life to the University.

“It means a huge amount. It was a total surprise and a lovely thing to get.”

She says it also recognises the “very talented and exceptional team” she has worked with at Lincoln.

She was also pleased that during her tenure Lincoln had become the first University in New Zealand to have a comprehensive open-access policy for its publications, data, teaching materials and business records.

“Universities are publicly funded so they should be publicly accessible,” Emeritus Professor Carnaby says.

She was the first director of the new Library, Teaching and Learning entity established in 2011 and her role had been an evolving one.

“It was a fantastic job, I really enjoyed it.”

She says Lincoln now has world class systems to support its learning, teaching and research activities.

Professor Sheelagh Matear, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Quality and Student Experience, says Emeritus Professor Carnaby has had an “enormous and positive impact” on the University.

“She was made an emeritus professor in recognition of her contribution not just to Lincoln University, but also of her career contribution, including her time as national librarian — and that she brought that career contribution to bear on Lincoln University,” Professor Matear says.

“It is also a signal of the University’s desire to have an ongoing relationship with Emeritus Professor Carnaby even in her ‘retirement’, particularly in how we manage, curate and make available data from publicly funded research.

“What she has achieved in many areas, including learning, teaching and research strategies and systems has been stunning, particularly over what must surely have been four of the most challenging years ( since the Canterbury earthquakes) in the history of the University,” Professor Matear says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media