Research Data Management (RDM) services: a new and innovative direction for libraries

Sarah JonesDigital Curation Centre

sarah.jones@glasgow.ac.ukTwitter: sjDCC

Stellenbosch Library Symposium, 15th November 2013, #stelsymp

What is the DCC?

A UK service to support the Higher Education sector with Research Data Management (RDM)

www.dcc.ac.uk

“Helping to build capacity, capability and skills in data management and

curation across the UK’s higher education research community.”

DCC Phase 3 Business Plan

Funded by:

What does the DCC do?

• Offer guidance – helpdesk, briefing papers, how-to guides

• Run training & events– DC101, roadshow, RDMF, IDCC

• Develop tools – CARDIO, DAF, DMPonline

• Support the Jisc – esp. via the Managing Research Data programmes

Guide and case studies: www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/developing-rdm-services

DCC data management roadshowsA series of regional events to allow every institution in the UK

to prepare for effective research data management, and understand more about how the DCC can help.

www.dcc.ac.uk/events/data-management-roadshows

“The roadshow as a whole will feed into the implementation plan we

are developing after passing our RDM policy”

“I was looking for a foundation in the issues for a librarian. Spot on!”

DCC Institutional Engagements

We ran IEs from mid-2011 to mid-2013 with funding from HEFCE to:

• Increase RDM capability by working intensively with 20 HEIs– Up to 60 days of effort per HEI drawn from a mix of DCC staff– Deploy DCC & external tools, new approaches & best practice

• Provide support based on what each institution wanted/needed

• Share lessons & examples with the wider community

www.dcc.ac.uk/community/institutional-engagements

Universities we worked with

• Mix of older, research intensive institutions and modern, post-1992 universities

• Geographic spread – several in London, South England, the midlands, north, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

• Range of research strengths, groups and centres

• Different levels of existing RDM capacity and priorities for DCC support

Areas of DCC support

DCC support

teamPolicy and strategy

development

Customised Data Management Plans

Requirements gathering

Guidance and support

Advocacy and awareness raising

Institutional data catalogues

Business case

Training

Storage

Assess Needs

Make plans

Develop RDM

support and

services

Common IE activities

• Establishing steering groups

• Making the case for RDM

• Run surveys, focus groups, interviews

• Developing RDM policy and strategy

• Pilot tools and services

• Offering DMP support

• Delivering training courses

• Setting up guidance websites

• ...

All of these apply at different scales.

Some wanted DCC to do the work, whereas

others just wanted advice and support to

validate their plans

Principal foci of IEs

Business plans

DMPonline customisations

Roadmap design (esp. for EPSRC)

Training for researchers & support staff

Requirements gathering (Data Asset Framework, CARDIO)

2

4

14

8

14

Most were in the early stages, scoping needs and developing plans.

Few were rolling out full services or had secured

ongoing funding.

IE roles and responsibilities

50% of the engagements have senior academic

champions Team leaders• Library – 11• Research office – 7• IT services – 2 Major support

• Library – 7• Research office – 2• IT services – 6• Records management – 2• Repository management – 1Library services were involved

in all of the engagements and were often leading RDM work

How are libraries engaging in RDM?

Library

IT

ResearchOffice

They are involved in:

• defining the institutional strategy

• developing RDM policy

• delivering training courses

• helping researchers to write DMPs

• advising on data sharing and citation

• setting up data repositories

• ...

University of Northampton

May-July

2010

•Ran DAF study to investigate researchers’ RDM support needs

Novemb

er 201

0

•URC Research Data Working Group convened

Jan-June

2011

•Research Data Policy proposed, refined and approved

2012-

2013

•DCC engagement focusing on RDM training

Novemb

er 201

3

•Drafting a new institutional template for DMPonline

http://researchsupporthub.northampton.ac.uk

An example of the library leading the institutional RDM work

University of East London

SupportDM• Five sessions on RDM, supporting researchers,

DMPs, selection and data sharing

• Each topic is introduced in a face-to-face session and explored via exercises and discussion

• Learning is reinforced via an online tutorial and practical exercises to do before the next session

www.uel.ac.uk/trad/outputs/resource

Example of re-skilling librarians to build confidence in RDM

Oxford Brookes University

Example of Data Management Planning support

DMPonline template• Customised institutional guidance • Dropdown boxes for answers• Training to help researchers write DMPs

University of Edinburgh

Example of data repository and registry services

• Collaboration between data library and university library

• DataShare repository - http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk– undertaken a number of pilots to test different use cases– beginning advocacy work to raise awareness and encourage deposit

• Data Asset Registry currently being scoped out– integration with existing repository and RIM systems is key

Why should libraries support RDM?

• Existing open access leadership roles

• Often run publication repositories

• Have good relationships with researchers

• Proven liaison and negotiation skills

• Knowledge of information management, metadata...

• Highly relevant skill set

Possible Library RDM roles• Leading on local (institutional) data policy

• Bringing data into undergraduate research-based learning

• Teaching data literacy to postgraduate students

• Developing researcher data awareness

• Providing advice, e.g. on writing DMPs or advice on RDM within a project

• Explaining the impact of sharing data, and how to cite data

• Signposting who in the Uni to consult in relation to a particular question

• Auditing to identify data sets for archiving or RDM needs

• Developing and managing access to data collections

• Documenting what datasets an institution has

• Developing local data curation capacity

• Promoting data reuse by making known what is available

RDMRose Lite

A hot topic...

The changing role of libraries and librarians is much studied and discussed

– Libraries, librarians and data (Corrall)– Re-skilling for Research study (RLUK)– Upskilling Liaison Librarians for RDM (Cox et al)– The Informatics Transform (Lyon)– Retooling libraries for the data challenge (Salo)– ...

RDM training for librarians• RDM for librarians, DCC

http://www.dcc.ac.uk/training/rdm-librarians

• RDMRose, University of Sheffieldhttp://rdmrose.group.shef.ac.uk

• Data Intelligence for librarians, 3TU, Netherlandshttp://dataintelligence.3tu.nl/en/about-the-course

• DIY Training Kit for Librarians, University of Edinburgh

http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/libtraining.html

• SupportDM modules, University of East Londonhttp://www.uel.ac.uk/trad/outputs/resources

CC-BY by domeheidwww.flickr.com/photos/domeheid/184382104

“Researchers need help to manage their data. This is a really exciting

opportunity for libraries….”

Liz Lyon, VALA 2012

Thanks – any questions?

DCC guidance, tools and case studies:www.dcc.ac.uk/resources

Follow us on twitter: @digitalcuration and #ukdcc