Bryan Sinclair
Associate Dean, University Library
Georgia State University
Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh
Interim Team Leader, Research Data Services, University Library
Georgia State University
Michele Claibourn
Director, Research Data Services & Social, Natural Engineering Sciences, Library
University of Virginia
More Than Data Management Plans: Exploring New Outreach Opportunities Through Expanded Research Data Services (Sinclair, Swygart-Hobaugh)
Many research libraries have begun to provide new services to campus researchers around the development of data management plans (DMPs), now required of federal funding agencies. Assisting researchers in this way has provided enterprising librarians new ways of engaging with their university’s research community. But assisting with DMPs is just one area where librarians can partner with the campus community in support of research data. Through expanded research data services, the library can work more closely with faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and staff in handling all aspects of their data, big and small. At Georgia State University (GSU) Library, we have begun to develop a team and services in support of research and data literacy across multiple disciplines involving quantitative, qualitative, business and spatial/GIS data. Librarians are available to collaborate, instruct, and advise across the entire research lifecycle, including identifying, acquiring, and using unique data sets, using data analysis software (SPSS, NVivo, ArcGIS, etc.), assisting with data visualization and survey design, consulting on DMPs, and ensuring for the publication, sharing, and reuse of data. While many of these services have been well established in libraries such as at Duke, New York University, and the University of Michigan for many years, others like GSU may be looking to expand their offerings in this growing and needed area. GSU librarians will share experiences with building their unique program from scratch, including team building, recruitment of graduate assistants, campus marketing and promotion efforts, and plans for assessing and furthering this vital new library role.
Presentation (Sinclair)
Bigger on the Inside: Integrating Research Data Services in Campus-Wide Research Networks (Claibourn)
The diffusion of data- and computationally-intensive approaches to an ever-widening range of disciplines poses opportunities and challenges to universities and the research partners and services within. In response, university libraries have been rapidly building and expanding research data services and expertise to meet growing needs in this domain. An oft-stated goal of such efforts is to become more centrally integrated into larger networks: within the library, within the home institution, and across institutions. Toward this end, the University of Virginia Library’s Research Data Services has collaborated in a growing number of formal and informal partnerships and networks to unify expertise and support for such research. Focusing on internal campus relationships, these range from formal networks, like the new Computational and Data Resource Exchange led by the Vice President of Information Technology, to informal partnerships, like our central role in supporting new grant discovery tools initiated by the Office of the Vice President for Research, to invitations to be part of new policy committees like the University’s Advanced Computing Steering Committee led by the Director of the Data Science Institute. Through such integration, our still evolving Research Data Services has greatly amplified our reach. This briefing will share our experience building research data services and integrating with campus partners across the institution. We will highlight both some promises and pitfalls we’ve encountered, and provide some initial metrics and assessment of our efforts to date.
http://research.library.gsu.edu/dataservices
http://data.library.virginia.edu/
http://cadre.virginia.edu/
Presentation (Claibourn)