‘DIY’ Research Data Management Training Kit for Librarians Robin Rice Stuart Macdonald EDINA & Data Library EDINA & Data Library University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Robin.Rice@ed.ac.uk Stuart.Macdonald@ed.ac.uk Abstract – This paper discusses extended professional research practises in the disciplinary areas each librarian development training in research data management for librarians represents. piloted at the University of Edinburgh. This is framed by the evolving research data management Roadmap at the University, II.PILOT COURSE national and international initiatives in managing research data by bodies such as Jisc and LIBER, and the subsequent need to There is an abundance of pointers in recent literature for ‘up skill’ information professionals in the emerging area of academic libraries to move "upstream" in the publication academic research data management. This knowledge-transfer process and work more closely with researchers at the pre- exercise includes independent study based on the research data publication stages [1]. For example, in 2012 LIBER MANTRA course and reflective writing, face to face sessions with (Association of European Research Libraries) set down " Ten different speakers giving short presentations followed by Recommendations for Libraries to Get Started with Research discussion, and group exercises. The resultant training ‘kit’ was released in Spring 2013 with an open licence for other Data Management" [2], including providing support services institutions, particularly those without local research data for data management plans, metadata and data standards, management expertise, to utilise for ‘DIY’ RDM training. developing staff skills in data librarianship, encouraging open data policies, supporting the entire research data lifecycle and Keywords – research data management, training, librarians promoting data citation. Such ideas have been reinforced by the Jisc Managing Research Data programme78 (2011-2013) I.INTRODUCTION in particular the Research Data Management Training strand The University of Edinburgh Information Services whose aim is to increase research data management skills in Division (IS) has developed a high-level plan or ‘Roadmap’76 UK higher education and research organisations by providing to deliver research data services across 4 strategic areas: data high quality training materials developed to serve the needs of management planning, active data infrastructure, data a variety of roles and stakeholders. (While the University of stewardship, and data management support. This cross- Edinburgh was not funded in this programme, it did participate divisional Roadmap will help to engage academic units and in programme activities as a DCC institutional engagement principal investigators in research data management and participant.) provide services to implement the University’s Research Data During autumn and winter 2012-13, data librarians at the Management (RDM) Policy77 passed by Senate in May 2001. University of Edinburgh led a pilot course on Research Data In order to realise the vision of the Roadmap staff across IS Management (RDM) based on the research data MANTRA will need to acquire new skills and confidence in engaging open online training modules79 originally developed by with RDM activity and support. As part of this exercise an EDINA and Data Library to reflect best practice in research extended professional development training for four liaison data management for PhD students and early career librarians at the University was piloted, facilitated by the Data researchers. Materials from the training sessions were Library, in relation to RDM and how it may be applicable to subsequently assembled to produce the ‘Do-It-Yourself Research Data Management Training Kit for Librarians’. 76 http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.101223!/fileManager/UoE-RDM- 78 Roadmap201121102.pdf http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/di_researchmanagement/ 77 managingresearchdata.aspx http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information- 79 services/about/policies-and-regulations/research-data-policy http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/ The training kit uses a blended learning approach and is and an understanding of what constitutes a data management designed to contain everything needed for academic librarians plan. in small groups to get themselves up to speed on five key 2. Organising & documenting data topics in RDM. It makes no assumptions about the role of librarians in supporting research data management, but aims to Combining two MANTRA units to provide an empower librarians to support each other in gaining understanding of why it is important to organise and document confidence in this area of research support. It also provides research data including managing data file versioning, naming some training in three of the identified skills that are named as and re-naming conventions, and an appreciation of why and gaps in the RLUK report ‘Re-skilling for Research’ [3]: when to use metadata. • Knowledge to advise on data management and 3. Data storage & security curation, including ingest, discovery, access, Providing an awareness of secure data storage options, dissemination, preservation, and portability encryption, and the importance of regular data backups and • Knowledge to support researchers in complying with backup policies. the various mandates of funders, including open access 4. Ethics & copyright requirements Focusing on the ethical requirements that apply to the • Knowledge to advocate and advise on the use of collection and management of data involving human subjects, metadata, and providing an appreciation of privacy and confidentiality, and touches on some others, such as the "Ability to advise on and how they apply to the management of research data. It preserving research outputs." also explains what IPR is and how it applies to research data as well as how Freedom of Information and related legislation Digital preservation receives a light touch in the training, affects access to research data. partly because it receives a light touch in MANTRA itself partly due to the intended audience of the materials, partly 5. Data sharing because this topic was seen as worthy of its own extended Introducing the benefits, challenges and drivers associated training, and partly because it may not be the responsibility of with sharing research data as well as the raising awareness of liaison librarians to run trusted preservation services such as the risks to the longevity of digital data. The topic also an institutional data repository. The training kit does however introduces the basic concepts of digital preservation and list key resources for further study in digital preservation and trusted repositories, and data licensing. other advanced topics. The training comprises five 2-hour face-to-face sessions. IV.TRAINING KIT CONTENTS These open with short talks followed by discussion and group • Promotional slides for the RDM Training Kit exercises from the UK Data Archive, in a private collegiate setting. Emphasis is placed on facilitation and individual • Training schedule learning rather than long lectures and passive listening. • Research Data MANTRA online course developed by MANTRA modules are used as reading assignments and EDINA and Data Library, University of Edinburgh: reflective writing questions are designed to help librarians put http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra themselves in the shoes of the researcher. Learning is reinforced and put into practice through an independent study • Reflective writing questions assignment of completing and publishing an interview with a • Selected group exercises (with answers) from UK Data researcher using the Data Curation Profile framework Archive, University of Essex - Managing and sharing developed by D2C2 at Purdue University. data: Training resources. September, 2011 (PDF). Complete RDM Resources Training Pack available at: III.TOPICS http://data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/training- The ‘DIY Research Data Management Training Kit for resources Librarians’ focuses on learning objectives for the following topics: • Podcasts for short talks by the original Edinburgh speakers if running course without ‘live’ speakers 1. Data management planning (Windows or Quicktime versions). Including an understanding of appropriate data • Presentation files (pptx and pdf) if learners decide to management in accordance with responsible conduct of take turns presenting each topic. research, an awareness of good practice in managing research, • Evaluation forms • Independent study assignment: Data Curation Profile, exercises at your own pace (some familiarity with each from D2C2, Purdue University Libraries. Resources software package is suggested as a pre-requisite). available: http://datacurationprofiles.org/ • Data Intelligence 4 Librarians is another online course, V.INDEPENDENT STUDY: DATA CURATION PROFILES developed by data librarians at 3TU.Datacentrum in the In the University of Edinburgh pilot training, the Netherlands - available in Dutch and English. Their evaluations indicated that overall the librarians considered "Data management" unit is similar to MANTRA, but what they were learning was of value to them. However, there you could investigate more librarian-specific advanced was no ready way to apply their knowledge in their day-to-day topics by working through "Technical Skills" and work. In order to test their knowledge and also increase the "Acquisition and Advice" on your own. confidence of the librarians to engage in discussions with researchers about data management, a post-training • The UK Digital Curation Centre (DCC) website independent study was assigned. Data Curation Profiles, provides a clearinghouse of valuable information. In hosted by the Distributed Data Curation Center at the Purdue particular, browse their ‘Resources for digital curators’ University Libraries, were the chosen method for the to find useful and up to date reading material. independent study work. • The DCC also hosts a relevant email discussion list Data Curation Profiles provide a complete framework for with subscribers from around the world. Join Research- interviewing a researcher in any discipline about their research dataman on JISCMail. data and their data management practices. Register on the DCP Toolkit website, http://datacurationprofiles.org to • Last but not least we encourage anyone whose job download the user guide, interviewer’s manual, interview involves academic data support to consider joining worksheet and template, as well as to access the user support IASSIST, the international professional organisation forum. for data professionals from all sorts of environments The pilot training was deemed successful by participants dealing with social and other types of research data. and Information Services managers, and another round of IASSIST hosts a vibrant annual conference - normally training with another small group is about to begin, with in the US, Canada or Europe. Their Fellows awards discussions on going to extend training kit materials for provides international travel stipends to selected technical support staff as well. Meanwhile, the librarians applicants to broaden attendance from under trained in the pilot are in the process of pursuing their represented countries. independent studies - interviews with researchers from liaison ACKNOWLEDGMENT constituencies which will result in new public Data Curation Profiles. We would like to thank Anne Donnelly for co-leading the pilot course, and Dr Alastair F. Brown and Kerry Miller VI.PUBLIC RELEASE (DCC) for their contributions. The DIY Training Kit is designed to contain everything We would also like to acknowledge the UK Data Archive, needed to complete a similar training course independently (in Digital Curation Centre (DCC), and Distributed Data Curation small groups) and is based on open educational materials. Center at the Purdue University Libraries. Users can apply their own creativity to reshape the course as they wish. For example, there are a number of group exercises available from the UKDA training resources pack, many of REFERENCES which are not included in the kit. [1] Gold, Anna. Cyberinfrastructure, Data, and Libraries, Part 2: Libraries and the Data Challenge: Roles and Actions for Libraries. The public release of the ‘Do-It-Yourself Research Data Dlib Magazine, September/October 2007. Management Training Kit for Librarians’ is now available doi:10.1045/september2007-gold-pt2 under a CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution) licence: [2] LIBER Working Group on E-science. Ten Recommendations for http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/libtraining.html. Libraries to Get Started with Research Data Management The Hague, Netherlands: LIBER, 2012. http://www.libereurope.eu/sites/default/files/The%20research%20 VII.RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE STUDY data%20group%202012%20v7%20final.pdf [3] Auckland, Mary. Re-skilling for Research London: Research • In MANTRA there are four software modules in data Libraries UK (RLUK), January handling. These modules are based on four common 2012.http://www.rluk.ac.uk/files/RLUK%20Re-skilling.pdf. data analysis packages. You can print off the user guide, download the dataset and work through the