Research Data Services

Carlson, J. Demystifying the Data Interview: Developing a Foundation for Reference Librarians to Talk with Researchers about their Data. Libraries Research Publications, 153 (2014).

Librarians needs certain information before conducting an interview with a faculty member regarding research data and associated needs. Gaining an understanding of the nature of specific data sets under discussion and its lifecycle are vital in determining research needs. There are tools such as DCP Toolkit that are meant to help librarians interview researchers from any discipline.

Data repositories will only attract submissions from researchers if the repository developers and managers understand and respond to the needs and requirements of the individual researchers. Therefore, people who are trained in conducting data interviews to understand the data and its requirements, will excel in helping negotiate and help researchers submit data into repositories.

Librarians must focus on the features, benefits, mechanics, and context of their repository services. This will enable them to leverage their existing relationships with faculty to encourage and facilitate content submission to institutional repositories. Making connections between faculty and institutional repository services should be an integral part of their liaison responsibilities. Librarians will work “downstream” in the data lifecycle and “upstream” in supporting the use of documentation, best practices, or standards in the production of data. This includes collaborating with others to build effective data curation systems and deliver appropriate data services using these systems.

Librarians who are able to talk with researchers about their data in ways that are understandable and meaningful to them will succeed in building meaningful and long lasting relationships. Establishing a clear understanding of what constitutes data is essential, and may ultimately be up to the researcher. There are many other terms to define, such as “data set,” “data lifecycle,” “data curation” and “data sharing.”

In conclusion, the purpose of the data interview is to investigate and should work with researchers to craft a response with recommendations as needed. The interview is meant to capture and deliver the perspective of the researcher being interviewed. By better defining the nomenclature surrounding data, librarians can become more useful to researchers working with their data and information needs.

Tenopir, C., et al. Research data management services in academic research libraries and perceptions of librarians. Library & Information Science Research (2014).

E-science and e-research have become more collaborative, more computational and more data intensive. This study leads to the understanding that librarians need more opportunities to learn more about research and data services in order to appropriately assist faculty and students.

The need for research data management has prompted the library plan to add additional research data services (RDS) to be offered. This expansion means librarians must develop their RDS-related skills. Research institutions have a responsibility to offer researchers educational and support services relating to data management, data sharing, and data preservation. However, the disparities among and within fields of what data curation volves makes it challenging for librarians to understand the needs of researcher.

The DCP Toolkit enhances the data reference interview and enables librarians to connect and discover the data needs of researchers. The profiles in the DCP Toolkit provide librarians with the various data management language researchers use in different fields of study.

Providing reference support for finding and citing data or datasets is the most common research data services libraries offer. Therefore, the current services are extensions of traditional informational or consultative services the library already offers. This study found that librarians feel they have the subject knowledge necessary to help researcher with data services, but desire and need the opportunity to continue education and learning. Increased awareness of the need for research data services and specialized skills of librarians within the academic community will likely result in the more effective development of such services.