Maturing research data services and the transformation of academic libraries
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-12-2018-0211 |
| Published date | 26 September 2019 |
| Pages | 1432-1462 |
| Date | 26 September 2019 |
| Author | Andrew M. Cox,Mary Anne Kennan,Liz Lyon,Stephen Pinfield,Laura Sbaffi |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Maturing research data services
and the transformation of
academic libraries
Andrew M. Cox
Department of Information, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Mary Anne Kennan
Department of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia
Liz Lyon
Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship,
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and
Stephen Pinfield and Laura Sbaffi
Department of Information, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Abstract
Purpose –A major development in academic libraries in the last decade has been recognition of the need to
support research data management (RDM). The purpose of this paper is to capture how library research data
services (RDS) have developed and to assess the impact of this on the nature of academic libraries.
Design/methodology/approach –Questionnaire responses from libraries in Australia, Canada, Germany,
Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK and USA from 2018 are compared to a previous data set
from 2014.
Findings –The evidence supports a picture of the spread of RDS, especially advisory ones. However, future
ambitions do not seem to have seen much evolution. There is limited evidence of organisational change and
skills shortages remain. Most service development can be explained as the extension of traditional library
services to research data. Yet there remains the potential for transformational impacts, when combined with
the demands implied by other new services such as around text and data mining, bibliometrics and artificial
intelligence. A revised maturity model is presented that summarises typical stages of development of
services, structures and skills.
Research limitations/implications –The research models show how RDS are developing. It also reflects
on the extent to which RDM represents a transformation of the role of academic libraries.
Practical implications –Practitioners working in the RDM arena can benchmark their current practices
and future plans against wider patterns.
Originality/value –The study offers a clear picture of the evolution of research data services internationally
and proposes a maturity model to capture typical stages of development. It contributes to the wider
discussion of how the nature of academic libraries are changing.
Keywords Information services, Academic libraries, Scholarly communication,
Research data management, Data curation, Research data services
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One of the most significant changes to academic library services in the last decade
has been the development of research data services (RDS) (Pryor et al.,2014).Drivenby
the “data deluge”, funder policy and open scholarship, libraries, in collaboration with
other professional services and researchers, have developed a range of advisory and
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 75 No. 6, 2019
pp. 1432-1462
Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-12-2018-0211
Received 19 December 2018
Revised 4 May 2019
Accepted 6 May 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
© Andrew M. Cox, Mary Anne Kennan, Liz Lyon, Stephen Pinfield and Laura Sbaffi. Published by
Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article ( for
both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and
authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
1432
JD
75,6
technical services to support research data management (RDM). A burgeoning literature
on the topic reflects an intense professional debate about the meaning of RDM
for librarianship.
There are a number of interlinked ways in which RDM might be considered to
constitute a fundamental shift in the role of academic libraries. First, this could happen
through a greater focus on research support and deeper engagement with the research
process, including embedding library roles in research teams. Academic librarians’focus
on research has typically paid most attention to historic collections and publications as
formal outputs of the research process. RDM, especially the notion of data management
planning (DMP) from project initiation, implies that there is a library role in supporting
information management throughout the research process and through the whole data
lifecycle. A second aspect that could be seen as transformational is the way curation of
research data turns the collection “inside out”. RDM is perhaps the classic instance of
moving from purchasing externally-produced material for institutional communities, to
stewarding the outputs of such communities for the wider world (Dempsey, 2016). It also
implies a re-emphasis on curation, preservation and re-use. Of the two traditional roles of
access and preservation academic libraries’focus have increasingly been on access, and
there is indeed an access issue around data, but issues around integrity, reproducibility
and transparency and the long-term preservation of data mark a potential shift of
emphasis. A third aspect of transformation could be that RDM potentially brings with it a
restructuring of professional relationships. RDM can be seen as initiating new forms of
collaboration on campus between professional services and faculty. New forms of
relationship in the wider “coopetitive”(a balance between collaboration and competition)
environment are also potentially created with other libraries or with new forms of
commercial vendor (Pinfield et al., 2017). A fourth linked aspect of transformation could
be the impact on competencies and professional identity. Some have seen the potential for
librarians to be much more heavily involved in data analysis, visualisation and research
integrity, implying a significant change to professional competencies. Commentators and
practitioners have coined terms such as data librarian or “databrarian”to reflect very
new types of role emerging in the RDM area (Rice and Southall, 2016; Kellam and
Thompson, 2016).
These trends have the potential to transform the nature of the academic library.
However, it is also possible to interpret academic library involvement in RDM as essentially
an extension of traditional activities, such as:
•advisory and support services;
•information literacy training: hence the term data information literacy; and
•repository management, with associated issues around collection management,
metadata management and resource discovery.
This less transformative response might be indicated by a focus on simply extending
existing services to encompass RDM, translating existing skills and organisational
structures to the new context (rather than developing significant new competencies or
restructuring) and out-sourcing some services, such as long-term preservation (if such
services are not seen as based on core competencies).
In this context, this study investigates the nature of library RDS and their impact on the
nature of academic libraries, using data from international surveys conducted in 2014 and
2018. This is done by seeking to answer the following empirical research questions:
RQ1. What RDM policies and types of RDS are being developed by libraries?
RQ2. What internal a nd external collaboration s have been involved in suc h developments?
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