Transcript School of Health & Bioscience

Sharing the load – librarians and
research data support services
Stephen Grace, Research Services Librarian
M25 Conference, Wellcome Collection, 23 April 2013
Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
Context at UEL
Why librarians, and the skills gap
Learning resource “supportDM”
Setting up an RDM support service
UEL and data management
• Identified RDM as issue in 2009 following
‘Keeping Research Data Safe’ report
• Recruited Research Services Librarian
with prior expertise in digital curation
• Responded to EPSRC letter by drafting a
policy adopted March 2012
• Bespoke support under DCC’s Institutional
Engagement
UEL and data management - 2
• Training covered in Jisc-funded project
called TraD – Training for Data
Management at UEL – with four strands:
– Reuse MANTRA for Psychology profdocs
– Create a course for Geoinformatics MSc
– Run workshops on good RDM practice
– Devise “supportDM” course for those
supporting researchers, tested with subject
librarians at UEL
Why are libraries leading RDM?
• Most of the Jisc RDM projects are libraryled – not all, and often working in
conjunction with IT and/or Research Office
• Close to researchers as library users
• Data are a form of information – and who
is better at managing information?
• Libraries are trusted partners committed to
long-term scientific/scholarly endeavour
Sheila Corrall, Univ. of Pittsburgh
“Powerful synergies exist between the longstanding
library commitment to open access and the
philosophy of open science, between the
principles underpinning library collection
management and emerging protocols for curating
digital data, between the track record of libraries in
technology adoption and systems development
and the complex demands for integrated
infrastructure and novel workflows, and between
the teaching mission of librarians and the
educational agenda for e-research.”
Corrall, Sheila (2012), "Roles and responsibilities: libraries, librarians and data", In: Pryor, G.
(ed.), Managing research data. Facet Publishing, ISBN 978-1-85604-756-2
.
Skills gap for librarians
• Ability to advise on preserving research outputs
• Knowledge to advise on data management and curation,
including ingest, discovery, access, dissemination, preservation,
and portability
• Knowledge to support researchers in complying with the various
mandates of funders, including open access requirements
• Knowledge to advise on potential data manipulation tools used in
the discipline/ subject
• Knowledge to advise on data mining
• Knowledge to advocate, and advise on, the use of metadata
• Ability to advise on the preservation of project records e.g.
correspondence
• Knowledge of sources of research funding to assist researchers
to identify potential funders
• Skills to develop metadata schema, and advise on
discipline/subject standards and practices, for individual
research projects
Taken from Auckland, Mary (2012), Reskilling for Research. RLUK.
Help yourself with supportDM
• Xerte training course of 5 modules
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introduction to RDM
Guidance and support to researchers
Data Management Plans
What data to keep, and why
Cataloguing and sharing data
• Supporting materials – presentations,
exercises, tasks, videos, Xerte modules –
for blended or self-learning
Online: Roles and players
Exercise: Matching data
Task: Review an RDM website
RDM Website review
University of Leicester
supportDM Module 2
What the site covers
The site is split into the following sections:
• Data management support
• Creating data
• Organising data
• Keeping data
• Finding and sharing data
• Training
• Advice, support and feedback
The tone, language, look
Tone and language
• Formal approach but
easily understandable
Layout and presentation
• Very clear sections which
follow logically the data
management process
• As the sections are clear
it is easy to go straight to
the required part of the
process
• Contact details visible on
the front page
What we could use/copy at UEL
• All of it!
Beg, steal or borrow
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•
•
•
Other support websites
Existing university RDM policies
DCC publications
Tools and techniques from Jisc-funded
MRD projects
• Training material for librarians from
supportDM, RDMRose and MANTRA
• Videos
Websites
RDM policies
DCC publications
Tools and techniques
Training materials
Exercise
1.
2.
3.
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5.
Offer research data
management support
Provide metadata services
for research data
Develop professional staff
skills for data librarianship
Institutional research data
policy
Interoperable infrastructure
for data access, discovery
and sharing
6.
Services for storage,
discovery and permanent
access
7. Promote research data
citation by applying persistent
identifiers to research data
8. Provide an institutional Data
Catalogue or Repository
9. Get involved in subjectspecific data management
practice
10. Storage for dynamic and
static research data in cooperation with IT
LIBER (2012), Ten recommendations for libraries to get started with research data
management.
http://www.libereurope.eu/sites/default/files/The%20research%20data%20group%202012%20
v7%20final.pdf
Feedback from exercise
• Things we could do
• Things we can’t – or
shouldn’t
Summary
• Libraries are ideal partners to share the
data load of researchers
• Plenty of existing material will help you get
started, and gain researchers’ confidence
• Your university needs data curators (data
managers, data librarians)
• And so does the one down the road…
Thank you
TraD is a Jisc-funded project of Library and
Learning Services at the University of East London.
The supportDM course was developed by UEL and
the Digital Curation Centre.
Stephen Grace
Email [email protected]
Web www.uel.ac.uk/trad/
Blog datamanagementuel.wordpress.com