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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Data Management:

Knowledge and skills required in research, scientific and technical organisations. Mary Anne Kennan Associate Head, School of Information Studies.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

• Australia is a vast

country

• CSU a regional

multi-campus university, mostly in NSW

• Flexible and

distance education

• Need for data

management courses?

Context of the study

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Introduction

Organisations need data librarians and managers to enable better use, management, curation, and preservation … Yet data professionals “new breed” for whom knowledge and skill requirements emerging?

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Literature and questions

Increasing literature – in written paper Questions:

• 1. Where, and in what roles, are data librarians,

managers and scientists likely to be employed;

• 2. What knowledge and skills are required of people

working in data librarianship and management roles; and,

• 3. What are the educational and training requirements

for data librarians and managers?

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Method

• 36 practicing data professionals and their

employers or supervisors

• interviewees were located in libraries,

information and/or data management departments and IT units.

• Individual and group interviews were

conducted

• this paper only reports the interviews from the

25 participants from the scientific research

• rganisations and universities.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Roles of data librarians and data managers

• Participants worked in libraries, other

information departments, and in specialist data units of universities and scientific

• rganisations.
• There was a huge range of job titles.
• Data Librarian, Data Manager, Data Consultant, Data Support

Officer, Data Archivist.

• E-Research Librarian, E-Research Manager
• Generic – e.g. Project Officer
• But … most library and information staff NEED

to understand data

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Knowledge and skills requirements – non data specific

• Interpersonal skills and behavioural

characteristics

• Contextual knowledge
• Training and advocacy
• Team work
• Management

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Knowledge and skills requirements – data specific

• Data types and

contexts

• Data processes
• Legal and regulatory

frameworks

• Data analytics
• Data curation
• Metadata
• Discovery

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Information Technology

• Important to have “just enough” of an

understanding of IT

• 1. To bridge the perceived communication gap

between IT departments and researchers

• 2. To understand IT options and make informed

decisions

• Be “programming savvy” rather than be a

programmer

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Education & Training

Current

• Librarians
• Information

Technologists

• Scientists

Learned “on the job” Future

• Librarians “with more”
• Scientists “with more”
• Short courses
• MIS with specialisation
• Graduate Certificate

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Conclusions

• Obvious v. evidence
• Difference – data curation only an

emerging need

• Scientific organisations require scientific

knowledge

• Curricular questions

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND EDUCATION

Thank you! Questions?