Developments in research data management in academic libraries: Towards an understanding of research data service maturity

Abstract

New Zealand, and the UK. The results indicate that libraries have provided leadership in RDM, particularly in advocacy and policy development. Service development is still limited, focused especially on advisory and consultancy services (such as data management planning support and data-related training), rather than technical services (such as provision of a data catalog, and curation of active data). Data curation skills development is underway in libraries, but skills and capabilities are not consistently in place and remain a concern. Other major challenges include resourcing, working with other support services, and achieving "buy in" from researchers and senior managers. Results are compared with previous studies in order to assess trends and relative maturity levels. The range of RDM activities explored in this study are positioned on a "landscape maturity model," which reflects current and planned research data services and practice in academic libraries, representing a "snapshot" of current developments and a baseline for future research.

European Academic Libraries Offer or Plan to Offer Research Data Services

“…The results of this study were in keeping with past studies in other geographic regions, which similarly found that libraries are likely to focus on the advisory rather than technical aspects of RDS (Cox, Kennan, Lyon, & Pinfield, 2017). RDS implementation also presents many challenges to academic libraries, and future research is vital to determining how RDS develops overtime and how librarians adapt to these challenges.…”

“…The current literature on RDS in academic libraries focuses primarily on providing benchmarks for the current state of RDS as well as librarians' plans for future services. Past surveys have been geographic, including studies of RDS in North America, the UK, and Australasia (Tenopir et al, 2015;Cox, Kennan, Lyon, & Pinfield, 2017). This study builds on that literature by extending this inquiry to a European context.…”

How are we Measuring Up? Evaluating Research Data Services in Academic Libraries

“…Widespread use of the term implies a common set of services (e.g., data management plan consultations, data discovery and citation, and data information literacy instruction), which is rather misleading. Libraries are still in the process of defining the boundaries of research data services (Cox, Kennan, Lyon, & Pinfield, 2017;Bryant, Lavoie, & Malpas, 2017). The context for RDS programs-their organizational placement, degree of centralization, and which library staff provide them-is highly heterogeneous (Fearon, Gunia, Lake, Pralle, & Sallans, 2013).…”

“…The context for RDS programs-their organizational placement, degree of centralization, and which library staff provide them-is highly heterogeneous (Fearon, Gunia, Lake, Pralle, & Sallans, 2013). These services may also be composed of traditional library functions paired with new services (Cox et al, 2017). Often, RDS are not feasible without strong partnerships between offices of research and IT services.…”

“…Descriptive studies on service development and composition, workforce capacity and capability, and perceptions about the role of the library in research data management make up a significant proportion of this literature (Cox et al, 2017;Lyon, 2007;Lyon, 2012;Tenopir, Sandusky, Allard, & Birch, 2014). In contrast, there is little discussion, practical or otherwise, of evaluating RDS as a coherent set of services.…”