Research Data Management and the Library & Information Science professions

Andrew Cox

a.m.cox@sheffield.ac.uk

JS Gericke Library, Stellenbosch, 2 November 2016

CONTEXT

Context

• RDM is about creating, finding, organising, storing, sharing and preserving research data within any research process

• Drivers for RDM – Data deluge – Compliance with funder requirements – Crisis of reproducibility – Compliance with journal requirements – Open Science – Good research practice

Good research practice

Open access

Desire to keep control o their data

Work involved in processing datasets

Lack of RDM knowledge & skills

Legal, ethical & commercial exceptions

Good Research Data Management

practices

Academic culture & lack of reuse culture

Force field analysis of RDM

Nov-16

Data preservation

Data storage & security

Compliance

The strengths of these forces play out differently in different contexts

Open Science

Reproducilbiity

Good research practice

Open access

Desire to keep control o their data

Work involved in processing datasets

Lack of RDM knowledge & skills

Legal, ethical & commercial exceptions

Good Research Data Management

practices

Academic culture & lack of reuse culture

Activity: How would you redraw this for your context?

Nov-16

Data preservation

Data storage & security

Compliance

Open Science

Reproducilbiity

Challenges

• Multiple drivers, including compliance element

• Scale of the problem, as a culture change issue

• Researchers’ own communities and loyalties extend beyond the institution

• Character of data itself – Volume, variety, velocity

– Not a thing: “when is data?”

– Fragility

• Alternative priorities

SOME THEORY OF PROFESSIONAL WORK

The professions and their decline

• Professions are one way of organising knowledge; “knowledge based occupations” (MacDonald, 1995) – prototypes medicine, law – Specialist knowledge – Accreditation – Autonomy and ethics – Values and an occupational culture – Social networks, particularly useful when problems are “complex, ambiguous and poorly

understood” (Swan and Newell, 1995) – “A central life interest” (Freidson, 1994)

• Librarianship as a “semi-profession”

• During the C20th under attack from the state, educated publics, the organisation and technology • State controls, eg clinical guidelines • Scepticism about professional knowledge E.g. The knowledgeable/expert patient • The organisation, eg discourse about business need, vs “silos” • Technology, eg google and the library

• Professionalisation has been seen as a strategy of “social closure”

Abbott’s (1988) System of professions

• Professions competing with each other for “jurisdiction” in the public domain, in law and in the workplace – Abstract knowledge, with ability to diagnose and solve

problems

– Dynamic picture based on continuous competition

– Eg LIS Access/ IL jurisdiction

– Competition and collaboration?

Differing and shared values of two professions (Creth, 1994)

• Computing professional – Technical orientation

– Entrepreneurial behaviour

– Creativity encouraged

• Librarian – Service orientation

– Consensus approach

– Fiscal responsibility

• Professional orientation

• Focus on global information community

• Concerned with well being of university

Cultural attributes of computing and libraries (Favini, 1997)

• “Computing services – Technology is the main driver of services

offered – Change in organizational structure is frequent – Use of formal project management

techniques is common – Male dominated environment – ACS under a Vice President of IT with an

emphasis on supporting Administration, Staff and Faculty

– Salaries vary greatly throughout the industry – Staff turn-over relatively high – Team oriented focus to accomplish clearly

defines goals – Reward system is flexible, based on short-

term performance – People possessing technical expertise operate

"behind the scenes" – Pace of change is fast ”

• “Libraries – Emphasis on contact with people – Technology used primarily to accomplish

service goals – Roles of organization members well defined

and agreed upon – The major functions of library work do not

vary among institutions – Librarians are products of a shared

educational experience, MLS – Staff turn-over relatively low – Female dominated profession – Organizational power derived by formal job

title – Reward system is comparable across the

industry – The acquisition of technology driven by

suppliers of information services rather than home grown innovation

– Library traditionally under the Academic Provost with an emphasis on supporting Students and Faculty”

Nov-16

FRAGMENTATION, FUSION, HYBRIDITY, THIRD SPACE, MULTIPLE & FLUID IDENTITIES

Fragmentation

• Public libraries… academic libraries… workplace libraries… law libraries

• The cataloguer… the systems person… customer service… liaison

• Proliferating specialties?

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Third Space (Whitchurch 2012)

• Neither academic or purely support roles • Bounded, cross-boundary, unbounded and blended

professionals • “Broadly based, extended projects across the university,

which are no longer containable within firm boundaries, and have created new portfolios of activity” (Whitchurch 2012: 24)

• Exciting, demanding, creative • Vulnerable to change, lack of cohesive group and identity

Multiple identities

• Communities of practice perspective

– Communities are actively shaped by our participation

– Multi-membership

– Trajectories of membership

– Boundary spanning

Summary: Our theoretical toolkit

• The profession as one way of organising knowledge

• Competition and collaboration

• Fragmentation

• Fusion; Hybridity; Third space roles

• Multi-membership and fluidity in professional identity

Activity: Employing our theoretical toolkit

• The profession as one way of organising knowledge

• Competition and collaboration

• Fragmentation • Fusion • Hybridity; Third space

roles • Multi-membership and

fluidity in professional identity

• Can you think of examples of these phenomena around you or occurring in your own experience?

• Which seem to resonate with your experience of RDM, in particular?

RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT

Emerging roles in UK libraries

• Digital curation/preservation specialist • Research data management coordinator

– RDM focus, with culture change remit, user requirements gathering, user advice and education

• Research Data Metadata specialist • Repository Manager • Research support librarian

– A general role encompassing: liaison, open access, RDM, data curation, bibliometrics, publishing

• Embedded librarian

Liz Lyon @ Pittsburgh:

The institutional Research Data Service • An institutional policy and business plan

• Support for Data Management Planning

• A guidance web site and advisory services

– On identifying secondary data

– On anonymising data

– On managing sensitive data

– …ETC

• A programme of training

– For PhD and taught students and for staff at different levels

– Relating to data carpentry, data analysis, data sharing…ETC

• Provision for secure and shared of active research data

• A catalogue or repository of research data

– Decisions about what should be collected

– High quality metadata

– Visible within wider collections

– …ETC

• Long term curation of data

• Embedded support within projects

• Leadership on RDM at an institutional level

– Change management

• Researchers themselves

• Senior research managers

• Librarians

• IT staff (central and distributed)

• Research Office (central and distributed)

• Archives and records managers

• Legal department

• …ETC

Taking on RDM roles in the library – theoretical possibilities

• Train Researcher/ research team • Recruit an expert data curator/ change manager / project

manager/ infrastructure expert/ librarian to be embedded in a project

• Upskill staff, from library, IT, records management, research administration – In library might be in research support team – Might be across all teams – IT and research admin staff are often embedded in departments

• Collaborate/ shared service • Out-source services • Substitute expertise with technology

Activity: “Who does what?” game

• “Others” could include – Archives and records managers

– Legal office: involvement in policy development

– Training/staff development: training

– Research ethics coordinators

– Distributed professional services: Faculty or departmental based IT or research support

• Of course it is an option not to do some things at all!

Libraries IT

Research administration

Researcher/research student

Information literacy

Data security

Slide by Martin Lewis, Director of Library, University of Sheffield

WHAT ARE LIS PROFESSIONALS STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES FOR RESPONDING TO RDM?

LIS is resilient because…

• The generic value of its knowledge base (e.g. principles of information organisation ) – existing jurisdiction of access and IL

• Continuing relevance of professional values e.g. commitment to access to information for all (as open access)

• Strong professional organisation? Not in the UK, at least at level of profession of librarianship as a whole

• Large professional group • Strong culture • Strong intra-institutional networks • Responsive, service orientation • Commitment to learning new skills

• Defensive – driven by attack on core jurisdiction • Do we ask enough questions about compliance agendas?

Challenges • We are already over-taxed!

– Other challenges in supporting research (Auckland, 2012)

– Getting up-to-speed and keeping up-to-date

• How deep is our understanding of research, especially scientific research and our level of subject knowledge?

• Complexity and scale of issues – Marked disciplinary differences in information practice

– Goes wide and deep: to every researcher in our institutions

• Translating library practices to research data issues

• Will researchers look to libraries for this support? Historic failure to engage researchers in library services – Computing services, Research support services

• Resources, infrastructure, management structures have to be found

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF NEW TYPES OF CHALLENGE LIKE RDM FOR THE LIS CURRICULUM?

Implications for LIS curriculum

• Competencies/mindset to support RDM

• Information fundamentals such as metadata, information organisation – Preservation/stewardship

• Information values: access, standards, openness

• Knowledge of IT systems

• Understanding of research practice

• Competencies to exploit possibilities in fluid professional environment

• Flexibility and creativity • Strategic vision • Horizon scanning and

computational “intelligence” • Influencing skills • Networking

• How should we teach these

things?

YOUR REFLECTIONS AND QUESTIONS