The role of university libraries in research data stewardship has been in rapid growth and evolution. Key principles for good research data management standards are emerging and stabilizing internationally providing an opportunity for institutions to encourage and facilitate sound research data management practices among its students and researchers.
Libraries are leading the way. There is growing demand for data stewardship support on many of our campuses, but are university libraries ready to provide the help needed? Libraries must consider how we strengthen our collective ability to anticipate and respond to these needs.
This paper will look at initiatives to build capacity around research data management services at a local level (the University of Ottawa Library) and at a national level (by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ (CARL) Portage Network).
In both cases, each organization is seeking to build additional capacity and engagement within their respective communities. At the University of Ottawa, the library has taken steps to increase its capacity to support data stewardship and to engage with researchers on campus. At the national level, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has created the CARL Portage Network which supports university and research libraries collectively in Canada. Drawing expertise from Canadian university libraries, Portage has created community-based expert groups, each with a focus on areas which include research data infrastructure development, data management planning, and training for data management competencies.
The University of Ottawa Library is developing local research data management services while drawing support from national initiatives such as the Portage Network. An exploration of these complementary approaches will illustrate how Canadian universities can walk the fine line between “acting locally” while “thinking nationally”.
