There's a lot of talk in our Library lately about research data management. Our institution is in the process of creating policy around research data and the question in the Library is "How will we support research data management?"
A look at the literature tells me this isn't a new topic. Academic libraries overseas have already tackled the issue of data management and some have created libguides and web pages about it. The support provided by these institutions seems to focus on assisting with the writing of a data management plan and consulting on steps within the data management process, like file format conversion, metadata creation and the choosing of an appropriate repository to archive the data.
I'm interested in how we will approach this topic. What skills already exist in our Library to support research data management, and how much training will be required so that we are able to meet this challenge? My sense is that there is a handful of librarians who are aware of the issues and who have enough of a foundation to begin to support data management. But the roles need to be thought through: will this become another aspect of the subject- or liaison-librarian's job? Or will it be a specialist task, reserved for staff in a new "Digital Scholarship" centre in the Library?
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