1 In the telecommunications industry the “last mile” refers to establishing the last section of connectivity from the network to the user. This part of the network is often the most expensive and difficult to implement, yet it is just as essential as all the previous miles in making a robust communications system. 2 For one example see: Nancy Fried Foster and Susan Gibbons, Understanding faculty to improve content recruitment for institutional repositories. D-Lib Magazine, v. 11, n. 1, January 2005. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january05/foster/01foster.html (accessed July 22, 2009). 3 Some examples where possible roles are discussed: Anna Gold. Cyberinfrastructure, Data and Libraries, Part 2: Libraries and the Data Challenge: Roles and Actions for Libraries. D-Lib Magazine, v. 13, n. 9/10, October 2007. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september07/gold/09gold-pt2.html (accessed July 22, 2009). Cornell University Library Data Working Group (2008). Digital Research Data Curation: Overview of Issues, Current Activities, and Opportunities for the Cornell University Library. White Paper. May 2008. http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/10903 (accessed July 22, 2009). © 2009 Tracy Gabridge This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/. To cite this article: Tracy Gabridge. “The Last Mile: Liaison Roles in Curating Science and Engineering Research Data.” Research Library Issues: A Bimonthly Report from ARL, CNI, and SPARC, no. 265 (August 2009): 15–21. http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/rli/archive/rli265.shtml. RLI 265 21 The Last Mile: Liaison Roles in Curating Science and Engineering Research Data ( C O N T I N U E D ) AUGUST 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC