1.
Research Data Management
Training and Support
Robin Rice, Data Librarian
EDINA and Data Library
University of Edinburgh
OpenAire / LIBER Workshop
Ghent: 28 May 2013
#elag2013

2.
Overview
 About the Data Library
 University of Edinburgh RDM activity:
o Research Data Management Policy
o Roadmap to implement policy
 Data Management Support in Roadmap
 The DIY Research Data Management Training Kit

3.
What is a data library?
“A data library refers to both the content and
the services that foster use of collections of
numeric, audio-visual, textual or geospatial
data sets for secondary use in research.”
Focus on re-use of data

4.
Data Library service at Edinburgh:
since 1983
finding…
accessing …
using …
teaching …
4ChartsBin and mkandlez on flickr

5.
Data Library & consultancy

6.
Where data librarians meet…
Follow #iassist2013 this week!

7.
U of Edinburgh’s RDM Policy
 Passed Senate in May, 2011
 Ten brief principles
 Sets out roles and responsibilities
 Aims to enable researchers to achieve good
practice
 Wide consultation organised by Library-led
committee set up by the Vice Principal

8.
What does the policy look like?

9.
Our Research Data Management
Roadmap (to implement the policy)
Involvement from across University and Information Services

10.
Data Management Support
General consultancy and support service
throughout the research process

11.
The Data Lifecycle
Slide borrowed with permission from Anthony Beitz,
Monash University. Presented at OR 2012, Edinburgh
CollaborateConceive Design Experiment Publish ExposeAnalyseDesign
Data
Management
Planning
Expose
National Repository or
Institutional Repository or
Electronic Journal or
Community Portal
Research Data Management
Platform
CollaborateExperiment PublishAnalyse

12.
Supporting and training
researchers
• Online guidance for academic staff
• Embedding RDM training into postgraduate
programmes (MANTRA); bespoke training
• Awareness-raising and service roll-out across
schools and research units
• Data management consultancy; grant-costed effort
such as in-depth planning or metadata support
• Training librarians & IT staff

13.
Online guidance for staff

14.
Online training for PhD students
online training course

15.
Another peak: wordle from one
MANTRA unit

16.
Liaison librarian training (2012-13)
 Information Services staff need training to build
confidence in engaging in RDM activity and
providing support
 Data Library had already created MANTRA, an
online RDM training course for PhD students
 Aimed to reuse MANTRA in a blended learning
approach for academic liaison librarians
 Idea inspired by Data Intelligence 4 Librarians and
Monash University Library

17.
17
Sam Searle & Robin Rice at Monash University, January 2009
//jisc-datashare.blogspot.com/2009/02/data-walkabout-7-melbourne.html

18.
DIY RDM Training Kit for Librarians:
CC-BY
Image by David Shankbone, wikimedia commons

19.
Approach: pilot librarian training
 Librarians are professionals with own
experience and concerns to bring to training
 Obtain buy-in from start, from participants as
well as their managers
 Small group (4 plus facilitator), private
setting, plenty of time for discussion, sharing
stories
 Emphasis on facilitation rather than teaching

20.
Five topics / modules
 Data management planning
 Documenting & organising data
 Data storage & security
 Ethics & copyright
 Data sharing
Topics of interest agreed with participating
librarians before start of training. Loose
correspondence to MANTRA units.

21.
Course structure: five sessions
 Each face to face session two hours duration
 Facilitated by an ‘expert’ (data librarian)
 Invited guest speakers to kick off each session
 Short talks followed by long discussions
 Interactive group exercises from UK Data
Archive Train the Trainers workbook

22.
‘Homework’ assignments
 Allow 2 weeks to complete prior to session
 MANTRA modules & recommended reading
 Reflective questions to think as a researcher
 Independent study:
 Interview a researcher
 Write up a Data Curation Profile
 The first builds confidence; the second practices what we preach
(sharing)

23.
Contents of the training kit
 Overview for facilitators
 Course schedule
 Reflective questions for each session
 Selected group exercises from UK Data Archive
 Independent study assignment: Data Curation
Profile, from D2C2, Purdue University Libraries
 Podcasts and presentations of short talks
 Evaluation forms
All CC-BY licensed so please reuse!

24.
Links
University of Edinburgh policy
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/research-data-policy
Research data guidance
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-management
MANTRA online training
http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/
Edinburgh University Data Library
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/data-library