Timothy M. McGeary
Associate University Librarian for Digital Strategies and Technology
Duke University
Claire Stewart
Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning
University of Minnesota
Sophia Lafferty-Hess
Research Data Management Consultant
Duke University
Jennifer Darragh
Research Data Management Consultant
Duke University
Academic libraries have been expanding their research data services in response to growing expectations that research data should be well managed, openly available, reproducible, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This presentation will provide an overview of how the Duke University Libraries and the University of Minnesota Libraries have scaled up research data management and curation services to better serve our communities. Background on the foundations of Duke’s initiative through engagement with the Provost and faculty, funding and staffing models, current curation workflows, and lessons learned will be discussed. Next steps will also be presented including Duke’s plans to join the Data Curation Network (DCN), which enables academic libraries to collectively, and more effectively, curate a wider variety of data types (e.g., discipline, file format, etc.) that expands beyond what any single institution might offer alone. Minnesota’s research data services program initiation and growth will be discussed, along with an overview of the Data Curation Network’s genesis, goals, and first year activities. Supported by a planning grant from the Arthur P. Sloan foundation, the DCN conducted researcher engagement activities at each of the six original partner institutions and iteratively developed a model for distributed data curation. The Data Curation Network members are University of Minnesota (lead), Cornell University, Duke University, Dryad, Johns Hopkins University, Penn State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, and Washington University-St. Louis.