Presentation for the Stellenbosch University 2013 Annual Library Symposium. The talk covers the DCC institutional engagement programme, profiling how library services have got involved in supporting researchers and developing RDM services.

1. Research Data Management (RDM) services:
a new and innovative direction for libraries
Sarah Jones
Digital Curation Centre
sarah.jones@glasgow.ac.uk
Twitter: sjDCC
Stellenbosch Library Symposium, 15th November 2013, #stelsymp

2. What is the DCC?
A UK service to support the Higher Education sector
with Research Data Management (RDM)
“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:
www.dcc.ac.uk

3. 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

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

5. DCC data management roadshows
A 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.
“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!”
www.dcc.ac.uk/events/data-management-roadshows

6. 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

7. 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

8. Areas of DCC support
Assess
Needs
Advocacy and
awareness raising
Institutional
data catalogues
Storage
Develop
RDM
support
and
services
Training
Guidance and
support
Requirements
gathering
DCC
support
team
Policy and strategy
development
Business
case
Customised Data
Management Plans
Make
plans

9. 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

10. Principal foci of IEs
2
4
8
14
14
Business plans
DMPonline customisations
Training for researchers & support staff
Roadmap design (esp. for EPSRC)
Requirements gathering (Data Asset Framework, CARDIO)
Most were in the early
stages, scoping needs
and developing plans.
Few were rolling out full
services or had secured
ongoing funding.

11. IE roles and responsibilities
50% of the
engagements
have senior
academic
champions
Team leaders
• Library – 11
• Research office – 7
• IT services – 2
Library services were involved
in all of the engagements and
were often leading RDM work
Major support
•
•
•
•
Library – 7
Research office – 2
IT services – 6
Records
management – 2
• Repository
management – 1

12. How are libraries engaging in RDM?
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
•
...
Library
Research
Office
IT

13. University of Northampton
An example of the library leading the institutional RDM work
May-July
2010
November
2010
Jan-June
2011
2012-2013
November
2013
• Ran DAF study to investigate researchers’ RDM support needs
• URC Research Data Working Group convened
• Research Data Policy proposed, refined and approved
• DCC engagement focusing on RDM training
• Drafting a new institutional template for DMPonline
http://researchsupporthub.northampton.ac.uk

14. University of East London
Example of re-skilling librarians to build confidence in RDM
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

15. Oxford Brookes University
Example of Data Management Planning support
DMPonline template
• Customised institutional guidance
• Dropdown boxes for answers
• Training to help researchers write DMPs

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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)
...

20. RDM training for librarians
• RDM for librarians, DCC
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/training/rdm-librarians
• RDMRose, University of Sheffield
http://rdmrose.group.shef.ac.uk
• Data Intelligence for librarians, 3TU, Netherlands
http://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 London
http://www.uel.ac.uk/trad/outputs/resources

21. “Researchers need help
to manage their data.
This is a really exciting
opportunity for
libraries….”
Liz Lyon, VALA 2012
CC-BY by domeheid
www.flickr.com/photos/
domeheid/184382104

22. Thanks – any questions?
DCC guidance, tools and case studies:
www.dcc.ac.uk/resources
Follow us on twitter:
@digitalcuration and #ukdcc