Building Blocks: Laying the Foundation for a Research Data Management Program by Ricky Erway, Laurence Horton, Amy Nurnberger, Reid Otsuji, and Amy Rushing, April 2016.

“Many research libraries are taking on a new role to support the research data management needs of their researchers and of their universities. In many cases, there are few resources to support the activity and a single librarian may have only the title or responsibility to get started. This document begins by suggesting very low-overhead ways to start a management program and goes on to describe services that can be added as possible to build out the program. References to many other resources are included.

Highlights:

• Public funding agencies increasingly are requiring that research grant recipients make their data publicly accessible, which exposes valuable university assets.
• The library is well situated to manage activities such as outreach, data deposit, metadata creation, and preservation; some university libraries are directed to do so, while other proactively offer their services.
• Libraries that are beginning to design a program need foundational guidance in areas such as needs assessment, outreach and training for researchers and library staff, preparation of data management plans, and legal issues.
• Libraries that have an active program in place need more detailed guidance, which comprises Part 2 of Building Blocks.
• The published literature in this area is already extensive, and Building Blocks includes more than 100 citations to material addressing all aspects of data management planning.”