If it's helpful, I have a collection of recent job descriptions in the
UK in this area. I've always intended to do a meaningful piece of
analysis on them but never really made the time, but I'm happy if
someone else wants to make use of them.

Jez

Gail Clement writes:

> Dear Robin, Sarah, and all –
>
> Having just returned from Research Data Alliance in Denver where conversations about RDM support in libraries was a predominant theme, one response to Robin’s question about RDM in North American libraries would be, as Amy mentioned, a resounding “It Depends. The landscape here depends on a complex combination of campus culture and needs; library culture, leadership, and resources; leadership pain points and priorities; and changing directives from the funders and publishers to whom our institution relies on most for our success. 
>
> Here is  the perspective from one (small sized but large footprint) US research-intensive institution. 
>
> Specifically at Caltech, there has historically been minimal expectation for the Library to help with research data management beyond sustaining the open access repository (mostly for papers); minting DOIs for data released by individual research centers (e.g., LIGO, Wormbase); and providing boilerplate language about our services to include in Data Management Plans. And the occasional request to handle a 'long tail’ dataset to satisfy publisher requirements for making data openly. 
>
> Subject librarians (with subject degrees, including MS and PhD in our assigned areas of responsibility) have ably fulfilled these responsibilities with existing resources. The primary ‘research data’ questions we handled were about complying with publisher requirements;  legal status of data and what licenses to use for open sharing; and somewhat related questions around compliance reporting and identifiers (ORCiD, DOI, ARK). In essence, the capacity and expertise we have was underutilized.
>
> A tipping point came last year, though, with our introduction of Carpentry training for all campus. This opened up so many doors and spurred many new discussions! In the wake of this proactive step, we were encouraged by faculty and admin to bring up a data repository and are working on launching a Caltech instance of Invenio (the platform behind Zenodo). We have now hired a data specialist in a librarian line (PhD in physical science with serious data skills); we have joined the Carpentry Foundation as partners; and we have reengineered our Instruction Program to integrate research data/software management in every session (Author Carpentry). Science librarians are ramping up capacity to help with Carpentry training. We are running a small symposium on the Research Paper of the Future with thought leaders in this field in early 2017. And a more intentional policy for curating the datasets accompanying a thesis is under development.
>
> Where did the funding come from to support these new “research data/software” native services and programs?  No additional funds have come from outside the Library. We have to stretch the same budget that covers essential published research materials; digital reformatting and sharing of unique Caltech-created content; instructional materials and course reserves; public computing and circulating technologies; the 3D printing lab; and well-equipped training rooms used by all of campus. 
>
> So we have strategically cancelled numerous ‘just in case’ subscriptions and annual memberships that  sustain the status quo of the printed (or PDF) journal in favor of demand driven acquisition.
> What we subscribe to has a reasonable, sustainable cost per use. The research services we support are shifting as much as possible to encourage creation of  executable, interrogate-able, research outputs openly accessible to humans and machines. 
>
> We would of course prefer that the library budget increase in support of the new initiatives around data and software (so some of these cuts would not be necessary). But we are committed to serving in all areas of research library service and are willing to question spending on status quo to enable new capabilities. 
>
> Best regards,
>
> Gail
>
> Gail P. Clement  | Head of Research Services  | Caltech Library  | Mail Code 1-43  | Pasadena CA 91125-4300  | 626-395-1203
> http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5494-4806 | library.caltech.edu

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