"One of the greatest inhibitors is the uncertainty of stable funding extending ahead over a two to three year period. All universities in Atlantic Canada are experiencing funding challenges and this has a direct impact on libraries. There are difficulties in capitalizing on provincial grants because CAUL/CBUA spans four provinces, and there are relatively few federal grants which are applicable for post-secondary academic libraries. Skilled staffing is an issue. University budgets are increasingly under stress, and the publish or perish requirement for faculty success, combined with the stranglehold that large academic publishers have on the cost charged back to the universities for this research has become unbearable. Libraries are poised to be the provider of choice for research data management planning services for their institutions, working in conjunction with IT departments, regional groups such as ACEnet and Acorn, and national organizations including Compute Canada and CANARIE."
