OURRstore – What is it?

OURRstore is an NSF funded digital tape archival storage system that has been designed and implemented at the University of Oklahoma. This large, automated tape library was created to support long term storage of terabyte to petabyte quantities of “write once, read seldom if ever” STEM research data. As such, OURRstore should not be considered a form of “working storage”, but a secure and redundant form of archival storage.

As described by Dr. Henry Neeman (University of Oklahoma Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER):

The University of Oklahoma (OU) has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant that has acquired, and will deploy and maintain, for 8+ years, a large scale storage resource — the OU & Regional Research Store (OURRstore) — to enable faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates to pursue data-intensive research, by building large and growing data collections, to share these datasets with collaborators and even the public, and to provide this capability to all institutions in (a) the Great Plains Network and (b) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions.

You can learn more about OURRstore from this informative Webinar which took place 4/8/2020.

What kinds of data can be stored in OURRstore?

OURstore is funded through an NSF grant and, as such, is a repository for STEM research data. 

In addition to the STEM limitation, data can not be legally constrained (i.e. no HIPA, FERPA, etc.).

How do I archive my research data in OURRstore?

1. Announce that you want to participate by completing this simple online form [Link to form coming soon!]. Your information will be forwarded to members of ILS who will contact you for a consultation about how to complete the remaining steps (below).
2. Take mandatory training provided by OURRstore staff.
3. Purchase 2-3 tapes and have them mailed to OURRstore.
4. Supply OURRstore with a prepaid return shipping label (PDF or similar preferred)
5. Fill tape with your data files.
6. When tape is full, a backup copy will be sent to you using the prepaid return shipping label.