With examples from earth system research data, an overview is presented on organizations, infrastructures and technologies involved in the long-term archiving, publication and provision of data, e.g. Global Change Master Directory, World Data Center System, NASA, national archives, portals. The importance of metadata, geocodes, citations and persistent identifiers in the context of data search and usage is discussed. Major international projects producing data and repositories storing data in the field of earth sciences are presented in terms of the 5 earth spheres (hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere).