Academic libraries are facing a range of new challenges in the 21st century, be it the pace of technological change, budgetary constraints, copyright and licensing, or indeed changes in user behavior and expectation. Models of scholarly communication are experiencing a revolution with the advent of Open Access with libraries adopting a lead role in self-archiving their institutional outputs in digital repositories. In addition, researchers are taking advantage of the computational power at their disposal conducting research in innovative and collaborative ways using and producing vast amounts of data. Such research-generated data underpins intellectual ideas which in turn propagates new methodologies, analysis and ultimately knowledge. It is crucial that we preserve such mechanisms and output for future generations. Thus with the experience gained from traditional cataloguing, indexing and organizational skills coupled to those acquired in developing, establishing and maintaining institutional repositories, the time is ripe for academic librarians to explore their role as data curators.