Research Data Management Services, SPEC Kit 334 (July 2013)

Fearon, David Jr.; Gunia, Betsy; Lake, Sherry; Pralle, Barbara E.; Sallans, Andrew L.

100 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
64. Please indicate which, if any, of the circumstances below would influence a decision to begin
providing RDM services at your library. Check all that apply. N=2
A Data Retention/Research Ethics policy at your institution (e.g., allowing potential data audit) 2 100%
Increased recognition of the need for better data sharing 2 100%
More requests from faculty/researchers for assistance with data management planning 2 100%
New grant funder requirements 1 50%
Growth of data intensive research 1 50%
Increasing academic credit for sharing data (e.g., as a data collection author or for tenure/promotion) 1 50%
Comment
All of these factors could influence us but the bottom line is we would still need more resources (expertise, staff time,
technologies...) to offer those services (short of being able at this point to drop any existing services).
65. The following is a list of departments and units in an institution that typically may be involved in
providing RDM services. Please indicate which, if any, RDM services (such as data management
planning for grants, training on data backups and security, or research data archiving) these units
provide at your institution. Check all that apply. N=1
Department/Unit DM
planning
support
DM guidance/
training for
research
Research
data policy
resources
Research administration/sponsored research 1 0 1
Individual academic units, research centers, or institutes 1 1 1
ROLE OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES
66. Please briefly describe the role you see research libraries playing in supporting research data
management, now and/or in the future. N=30
Academic libraries have always had a role in educating researchers—extending that education to cover RDM is no
different. I also wonder whether it wouldn’t be useful to offer metadata consulting in the library, another area where
libraries have long had expertise. We don’t offer reference desk services worried about how we will serve every single
person on campus—why not metadata consulting?
Actively archiving research data. This is a natural extension of our role as the institutional memory.
An educational and supportive role, helping researches learn of things like the DMPTool and existing data repositories
and practices.
At the most fundamental level, research libraries will be expected to assist their researchers with planning for the
management of data throughout the data lifecycle. Beyond providing a library-operated data management writing/

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100 · Survey Results: Survey Questions and Responses
64. Please indicate which, if any, of the circumstances below would influence a decision to begin
providing RDM services at your library. Check all that apply. N=2
A Data Retention/Research Ethics policy at your institution (e.g., allowing potential data audit) 2 100%
Increased recognition of the need for better data sharing 2 100%
More requests from faculty/researchers for assistance with data management planning 2 100%
New grant funder requirements 1 50%
Growth of data intensive research 1 50%
Increasing academic credit for sharing data (e.g., as a data collection author or for tenure/promotion) 1 50%
Comment
All of these factors could influence us but the bottom line is we would still need more resources (expertise, staff time,
technologies...) to offer those services (short of being able at this point to drop any existing services).
65. The following is a list of departments and units in an institution that typically may be involved in
providing RDM services. Please indicate which, if any, RDM services (such as data management
planning for grants, training on data backups and security, or research data archiving) these units
provide at your institution. Check all that apply. N=1
Department/Unit DM
planning
support
DM guidance/
training for
research
Research
data policy
resources
Research administration/sponsored research 1 0 1
Individual academic units, research centers, or institutes 1 1 1
ROLE OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES
66. Please briefly describe the role you see research libraries playing in supporting research data
management, now and/or in the future. N=30
Academic libraries have always had a role in educating researchers—extending that education to cover RDM is no
different. I also wonder whether it wouldn’t be useful to offer metadata consulting in the library, another area where
libraries have long had expertise. We don’t offer reference desk services worried about how we will serve every single
person on campus—why not metadata consulting?
Actively archiving research data. This is a natural extension of our role as the institutional memory.
An educational and supportive role, helping researches learn of things like the DMPTool and existing data repositories
and practices.
At the most fundamental level, research libraries will be expected to assist their researchers with planning for the
management of data throughout the data lifecycle. Beyond providing a library-operated data management writing/

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SPEC Kit 334: Research Data Management Services · 101
planning service, I cannot say exactly where research libraries will find themselves when it comes to data management
planning. So much of where libraries will go depends on the university in which the library is operating. I see universities
as being unique, each university having its focus and individual culture. To say that every university library will offer RDM
services in the future is a stretch. Unlike book loaning or providing catalog searching services, RDM services do not have
to be offered by a library. In fact, there’s no universally accepted expectation that libraries will be offering RDM services.
RDM planning, for example, could be offered by an office of research just as easily as a library. The question comes
down to partnerships because RDM services touch so many stakeholders on campus, and no one campus department,
unless it has been designed specifically for the purpose, will provide every RDM service a researcher could possibly hope
for. Thus, partnerships must be formed and agreements made on who will offer these services on a research campus.
However, I am of the opinion that libraries will be the future service providers of RDM resources and RDM plan writing,
due to the fact that it is the one place where they can establish a foothold without too much investment in the changing
research paradigm.
Based on survey responses and interactions with researchers I’ve had during our campus-wide study thus far, I see
opportunities for libraries to support RDM through DMP consulting (with certain disciplines), data archiving (in
institutional or disciplinary repositories), and perhaps licensing of datasets. I believe instruction and liaison librarians
can play a role by promoting resources and incorporating data literacy in their instruction. Many researchers, however,
would not be best served by the libraries or they would prefer to find assistance elsewhere. Any success in RDM
services will come from active partnerships with existing research services on campus, such as IRB, central IT, research
administration, and designated research support services within colleges or departments.
Continue to provide service, support and training for data management.
Faculty rarely physically visit the library now online resources provide easy access from anywhere. If the library is to stay
relevant to faculty research, this is an area we must expand into in a significant way.
For our university, the library is one branch in a tree of research data management support that spreads across our
entire campus. By working with other campus providers such as IT, the Center for Advanced Computing, the Institute
for Social and Economic Research, and the faculty themselves, the library is part of a collaborative system that strives to
offer services and expertise to fill research data management needs throughout the full data lifecycle.
I believe libraries have a significant role to play in the development of research data management, but finding the right
skill set will be difficult. We will need to look for expertise outside of the profession. Collaborations and partnerships will
be essential to create a useful plan for the campus.
I see libraries assisting researchers with metadata issues, planning for ongoing access, archiving of data, and referral to
additional services offered by the university or external entities.
I see research data management training belonging within the purview of libraries. I see data archiving, at least for
some data, also within the purview of libraries however, domain repositories and perhaps publishers also playing a part
in archiving of research data. Regardless of where data are archived, a library should at least have a catalog of data sets
generated under that university/college, which points to the archived location of that data set. Public funders may be
pushing changes in the near future and are looking to libraries to help.
I think it will only increase.
Independent of infrastructure for data management: education and training (students), policies (interpretation and
development), data management planning support, and partnering with archives.
It is already abundantly clear that research libraries can play a major and important role in supporting research data
management, to the benefit of researchers and the library alike. Research libraries, in fact, *must* enhance their

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SPEC Kit 334: Research Data Management Services · 99
university units, central administration, or perhaps the government.
62. In the next three years, do you expect your library’s overall allocation of funds for RDM services to
increase, decrease, or stay about the same? N=64
Increase 42 66%
Decrease 1 2%
Stay about the same 21 33%
Please enter any comments you may have on anticipated funding of your RDM services. N=10
Because our archiving service is paid through charges back to the grant, our funding should grow as more and more
researchers archive with us.
It is difficult to talk about the source of funding for future at this time because of uncertainty about senior leadership
positions, e.g., VPR, provost, president.
This is currently unknown.
Very hard to predict though our strategic plan is committed to RDM services.
We are actively involved in securing both federal agency grant-based and endowment funding for increased research
data services in our library. Even if our current efforts are less than successful, we will continue to pursue these routes as
ways of supplementing our library’s limited budget for research data services.
We are currently doing some basic things with resources and tools, but if resources allow will begin to develop real
sustainable services in this area.
We have no specific goals with regard to funding but anticipate the need growing and our resource allocation changing
as well.
We haven’t given this any thought, yet.
We really don’t know what the funding outlook is because it will be determined by the new UL who is starting in
August.
While RDM work is core and continuous with other library curatorial activities, the work can open into a higher ongoing
level of engagement with researchers. This could lead to stronger and broader impacts from all research. This would
also increase overall demands and require more funding overall.
NO LIBRARY RDM SERVICES
63. Please briefly explain why your library is not providing RDM services. N=2
Little to no demand.
We do not have the resources to introduce new services at this point.

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Page 9Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 107Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 109RDM Web Pages click to expand contents

Page 113IRs and Data Archives click to expand contents

Page 123Data Management Plan Tools click to expand contents

Page 135Job Descriptions click to expand contents

Page 155Organization Charts click to expand contents

Page 161Research Data Policies click to expand contents

Page 173Data Retention Policies click to expand contents

Page 187Data Needs Assessment click to expand contents

Page 205RDM Staff Resources click to expand contents

Page 209Outreach Materials click to expand contents

Page 213Selected Resources click to expand contents

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