D. Scott Brandt
Associate Dean for Research
Purdue University
Dorothea Salo
Research Services Librarian
University of Wisconsin
There is no doubt about the importance of librarians assessing information needs, especially as the issue of disseminating research data bombards the scholarly communication landscape. Can librarians build long term relationships to become integral to research in the university? And/or can they take advantage of opportunities to insert themselves into the role of partner?
Presented here are two perspectives/approaches to those questions, exemplified by participation in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Data Management Plan process. At Purdue University, the Libraries have built relationships with the Vice President for Research (VPR) and Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) over a course of several years of collaborations and partnerships. Building an institutional response to the NSF “mandate” was an organizational approach charged by Research and co-led by the Libraries and the Information Technology (IT) department. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, IT professionals and librarians interested in research-data management “manufactured serendipity” to keep the issue on the campus radar. Years of patient explanations and sub rosa pilot projects paid off when the NSF data-management plan requirement arrived and Research Data Services was ready to manage the challenge.
http://researchdata.wisc.edu/
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/34859
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/21443
http://datacurationprofiles.org
http://d2c2.lib.purdue.edu