Building Data Services From the Ground Up: Strategies and Resources

Abstract

There is a scarcity of practical guidance for developing data services in an academic li-brary. Data services, like many areas of re-search, require the expertise and resources of teams spanning many disciplines. While library professionals are embedded into the teaching activities of our institutions, fewer of us are embedded in activities occurring across the full research life cycle. The signifi-cant challenges of managing, preserving, and sharing data for reuse demand that we take a more active role. Providing support for funder data management plans is just one option in the data services land-scape. Awareness of the institutional and library culture in which we operate places an emphasis on the importance of relationships. Understanding the various cultures in which our researchers operate is crucial for deliver-ing data services that are relevant and uti-lized. The goal of this article is to guide data specialists through this landscape by provid-ing key resources and strategies for devel-oping locally relevant services and by point-ing to active communities of librarians and researchers tackling the challenges associ-ated with digital research data.