My notes for the data librarian session

For those that couldn't make it to the session on data librarians, here are some bullet points that I used to frame the discussion.

The group talked a lot about the value of data, including for purposes that may not have been initially thought about at the time the data was collected. The need for collaboration with other professional groups (especially IT providers) came up. Several participants gave examples of the importance of data within their different organisations, including universities, CSIRO, not-for-profit, health, library statistics, etc. We also talked about the skills librarians can bring to this new space, and the need for library school providers to start incorporating this into library courses: Charles Sturt Uni will be offering a new paper in this area later this year. Copyright/IP and ethics were discussed, including strategies that could be adopted to facilitate a more open approach (e.g. designing methodologies and asking for consent in such a way that it is clear that data can be made available for re-use later on).

Sam

• Data can be defined in different ways depending on your organisation. One way to think about it is as the raw materials that support the business. 
• In the past data has tended to be treated as a by-product of the process for producing other kinds of information (reports, publications etc) but increasingly it is being seen as an important asset that need to be managed. 
• Reasons for managing vary, from a need for validating research results, compliance with legislation or policy, providing an evidence base for decisionmaking in various professions or promoting innovation (e.g. opening up government data so that apps can be created by others). 
• Where do librarians fit in? There are at least two ways. 1. By helping store, describe and organise data, and making it accessible for discovery & re-use either within the organisation or more broadly. This involves very similar issues to managing any kind of unique primary materials, and has links with cataloguing and repositories, but also with records and archives. 2. Helping the institution and the people within it manage data better, through providing advice, building new kinds of information skills (numeracy, digital literacies), and helping people find or build tools that help them make data more secure, more usable, and more re-usable by others.
• We can't do it alone, but if we don't do it at all our perspective will be missed. IT can see data management as primarily a storage issue, when it is also largely about people's workflows and behaviours. 
• Some of the skills that librarians have already, and how they can be extended into this new area:
  Metadata standards, esp. bibliographic standards --->> Multiple data and metadata, including discipline-specific and type-specific
  Cataloguing and indexing to high standards --->> Exchanging and transforming metadata across standards - mapping, crosswalks, XML/XSLT, with a focus on fitness-for-purpose
  Item-level description --->> Collection-level description
  Copyright --->> IP, data licensing, data transfer agreements
  Academic integrity (e.g. citing and referencing) --->> Research integrity and data integrity (e.g. ethics, privacy)
• Is there a firm career path for librarians in data management yet? There are not many roles solely focused on data yet, but it is being partially incorporated into a lot of other roles, e.g. uni subject librarians, information managers in government departments and so on. Skills in this area seem likely to become much more important in future.