Supporting Research Data Management and Open Science in Academic Libraries: a Data Librarian’s View

Abstract

The 'data revolution' has impacted researchers across the disciplines. As if the traditional work of teaching, competing for grants and promotion, doing research and publishing results was not challenging enough, researchers are required to make fundamental changes in the way they do all of these things. A similar shift can be seen for academic librarians. Librarians who were taught to meet the needs of their users based on information scarcity now need to retrain themselves to help users deal with information overload. Moreover, librarians increasingly find themselves 'upstream' in the research process, trying to assist their users in managing unwieldy amounts of data when their comfort zone is firmly 'downstream' in the post-publication stage. Unsettling as it may be, these are exciting developments for the library profession. UNTERSTÜTZUNG VON FORSCHUNGSDATENMANAGEMENTUND OFFENER WISSENSCHAFT IN WISSENSCHAFTLICHEN BIBLIOTHEKEN: DIE SICHT EINES DATA LIBRARIANS Zusammenfassung: Die "Datenrevolution" hat sich auf die WissenschaftlerInnen aller Disziplinen ausgewirkt. Als ob die traditionelle Arbeit in der Lehre, im Wettbewerb um Stipendien und Förderungen, in der Forschung und bei der Veröffentlichung von Forschungsergebnissen nicht schon anspruchsvoll genug wäre, müssen sie grundlegende Veränderungen in der Art und Weise vornehmen, wie sie all diese Dinge tun. Eine ähnliche Veränderung ist bei den wissenschaftlichen BibliothekarInnen zu beobachten. BibliothekarInnen, denen beigebracht wurde, die Bedürfnisse ihrer NutzerInnen aufgrund von Informationsknappheit zu befriedigen, müssen nun umlernen, um den Nut-zerInnen bei der Bewältigung der Informationsflut zu helfen. Darüber hinaus finden sich BibliothekarInnen bereits zunehmend im Forschungsprozess wieder und versuchen, ihre NutzerInnen bei der Verwaltung sperriger Datenmengen zu unterstützen. So verunsichernd dies auch sein mag, sind dies spannende Entwicklungen für den Bibliotheksberuf.

Fair Data: History and Present Context

“…Though they had enough information given, they argued that researchers, project investigators, and computer divisions should further collaborate more closely with librarians (Tripathi et al, 2017). This was a wise decision, for with proper data management planning many security breaches and much data loss can be avoided (Rice, 2019).…”

Academic libraries and research data management

“…For instance, Japan has started developing computing structures to keep and discover research data (Komiyama and Yamaji, 2017). In Scotland, librarians have started training their researchers in data management plans, evaluating RDM costs, or ensuring that sensitive data is kept safely where the storage costs increase because of the security for protecting data (Rice, 2019). In regard to training, the International Federation of Libraries Association (IFLA) has published a report "IFLA Guidelines for Professional Library and Information Science (LIS) Education Programmes" (Chu et al, 2022) emphasizing in 8 foundational knowledge areas (FKA).…”

Data librarianship as a field study

“…Finally, contained in the core of the diagram is data librarianship, represented as the central intersection between the three sets (information science, data science, and e-science) representing the impact of data technologies and new data-intensive research in libraries. It relates to the interest of librarians in understanding the use and reuse of data technologies, which can be used to create library services (Xia;Wang, 2014;Rice;Southall, 2016;Koltay, 2017).…”

“…The definition of research data is intricate and fluid and often refers to the recorded information necessary to support or validate research project observations, findings, or outputs. It comprises records, files, or other evidence, irrespective of their content or form (e.g., print, digital, or other forms) that facilitate research observations, findings, or outcomes, including primary materials and analyzed data (Rice;Southall, 2016;Henderson, 2017;Koltay, 2017).…”

“…Relating to the usage of research data by researchers, data librarians must possess competencies, including organizing, storing, accessing, and preserving research data. Furthermore, data librarians must have the knowledge and skills necessary to advise researchers on (a) preservation of research results; (b) data management and data curation, including discovery, access, dissemination, preservation, and portability; (c) meeting various deadlines required by funding institutions, including open access requirements; (d) potential data manipulation tools that can be used for data mining; and (e) the use of metadata (Rice;Southall, 2016;Henderson, 2017;Rice, 2019).…”