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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
2025
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| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED672487 |
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| _version_ | 1867181756688367616 |
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| author | Donald J. Waters |
| author_facet | Donald J. Waters Donald J. Waters |
| collection | Education Resources Information Center |
| contents | Meeting the Climate Emergency: University Information Infrastructure for Researching Wicked Problems Donald J. Waters Climate Research Universities Social Problems College Role Academic Libraries Interdisciplinary Approach Research and Development Centers Library Role Information Sources Research Needs Library Materials Research Libraries Departments School Community Relationship Data Analysis Commissioned by the Coalition for Networked Information, this report examines the role of research universities in addressing complex societal challenges. It focuses on climate change, which is best characterized as a "wicked" problem. Such problems are difficult to define and lack clear solutions in part because they involve multiple stakeholders who sometimes have sharply differing interests and perspectives. Given this complexity, understanding climate change is not just a matter for researchers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and medicine. It requires an all-hands-on-deck approach across the disciplinary spectrum, including experts from the social sciences and humanities. It also requires deep engagement of researchers with the public. With their faculties in a wide array of disciplines, their capacity for largescale research, and their sensitivity to the public interest, research universities in the United States are especially well-positioned to address wicked problems like climate change. However, to be most effective, they need to rebalance their emphasis on the STEM fields and make other key structural reforms. This report argues that university libraries, campus computing organizations, and other information specialists must be part of such reforms. Indeed, with a strategic redeployment of their resources within the university's research and information infrastructure, they could help catalyze these much needed changes. Any transformation in how universities approach wicked problems like climate change must include a recognition that over the last three decades campus information specialists have dramatically shifted the primary nature of their services. From traditional roles of collection building and the provision of equipment, software, and bandwidth, these experts now have a much broader set of skills, which they regularly apply to help faculty gather and use whatever physical and digital materials they need for research and learning as they need them. For wicked problem research, this report proposes that university libraries and related information resource organizations should now modify their research service strategies even further. They should focus more attention on standard, university-supported centers and institutes that conduct interdisciplinary research on climate change. They should then aim to: (a) broaden the disciplinary range, (b) deepen the public engagement, and (c) extend the analytical capabilities of those research centers and institutes. Overall, this report underscores the urgency and complexity of climate change and other wicked problems that impede human flourishing and offers concrete steps by which universities could adapt their research infrastructure to address these problems more effectively. [This report was originally published by the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).] |
| format | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| id | eric_ED672487 |
| institution | ERIC Institute of Education Sciences |
| language | en |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | eric |
| spellingShingle | Meeting the Climate Emergency: University Information Infrastructure for Researching Wicked Problems Donald J. Waters Climate Research Universities Social Problems College Role Academic Libraries Interdisciplinary Approach Research and Development Centers Library Role Information Sources Research Needs Library Materials Research Libraries Departments School Community Relationship Data Analysis Meeting the Climate Emergency: University Information Infrastructure for Researching Wicked Problems Donald J. Waters Climate Research Universities Social Problems College Role Academic Libraries Interdisciplinary Approach Research and Development Centers Library Role Information Sources Research Needs Library Materials Research Libraries Departments School Community Relationship Data Analysis Commissioned by the Coalition for Networked Information, this report examines the role of research universities in addressing complex societal challenges. It focuses on climate change, which is best characterized as a "wicked" problem. Such problems are difficult to define and lack clear solutions in part because they involve multiple stakeholders who sometimes have sharply differing interests and perspectives. Given this complexity, understanding climate change is not just a matter for researchers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and medicine. It requires an all-hands-on-deck approach across the disciplinary spectrum, including experts from the social sciences and humanities. It also requires deep engagement of researchers with the public. With their faculties in a wide array of disciplines, their capacity for largescale research, and their sensitivity to the public interest, research universities in the United States are especially well-positioned to address wicked problems like climate change. However, to be most effective, they need to rebalance their emphasis on the STEM fields and make other key structural reforms. This report argues that university libraries, campus computing organizations, and other information specialists must be part of such reforms. Indeed, with a strategic redeployment of their resources within the university's research and information infrastructure, they could help catalyze these much needed changes. Any transformation in how universities approach wicked problems like climate change must include a recognition that over the last three decades campus information specialists have dramatically shifted the primary nature of their services. From traditional roles of collection building and the provision of equipment, software, and bandwidth, these experts now have a much broader set of skills, which they regularly apply to help faculty gather and use whatever physical and digital materials they need for research and learning as they need them. For wicked problem research, this report proposes that university libraries and related information resource organizations should now modify their research service strategies even further. They should focus more attention on standard, university-supported centers and institutes that conduct interdisciplinary research on climate change. They should then aim to: (a) broaden the disciplinary range, (b) deepen the public engagement, and (c) extend the analytical capabilities of those research centers and institutes. Overall, this report underscores the urgency and complexity of climate change and other wicked problems that impede human flourishing and offers concrete steps by which universities could adapt their research infrastructure to address these problems more effectively. [This report was originally published by the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI).] |
| title | Meeting the Climate Emergency: University Information Infrastructure for Researching Wicked Problems |
| topic | Climate Research Universities Social Problems College Role Academic Libraries Interdisciplinary Approach Research and Development Centers Library Role Information Sources Research Needs Library Materials Research Libraries Departments School Community Relationship Data Analysis |
| url | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED672487 |