Abstract

Data management has become an essential requirement for information professionals in the last decade, particularly for the higher education research community, as more and more digital information is created and stored. As budgets shrink and funders of research increasingly demand evidence of value for money and demonstrable benefits for society, there is increasing pressure to provide plans of sustainable management of data. Ensuring that important information remains discoverable, accessible and intelligible and is shared as part of a larger web of data will mean research has a life beyond its initial purpose and can offer real utility to the wider institution and beyond. This edited collection, bringing together leading figures in the field from the UK and around the world, provides an introduction to all the key data issues facing the HE and information management communities. Using the authors' expertise and relevant international case studies, it defines what is required to achieve a culture of effective data management offering practical advice on the skills required, legal and contractual obligations, strategies and management plans and the data management infrastructure of specialists and services. Each chapter covers a critical element of data management including: the meaning of data management; the lifecycle of data management; the policy environment; an organisational approach to achieving digital sustainability; data management plans and planning; roles and responsibilities for libraries and librarians; the challenge to university information services; an analysis of the New World approach; and resources and sources of support to data management. This is essential reading for librarians and information professionals working in the higher education sector, the research community, policy makers and university managers. It will also be a useful introduction for students taking courses in information management, archivists and national library services.
"This is an excellent book for anyone, not just information professionals, looking to ‘introduce and familiarize' themselves with a complex and challenging, yet increasingly important topic. The book benefits from a prestigious line-up of knowledgeable authors, including those who are actually ‘doing’ research and research data management. As an edited volume it fits well together as a single entity even though written by a number of individuals: chapters reference other chapters and the reader is not left with a sense of a ‘cobbled-together’ mix of disparate topics from different people. The content can equally well be dipped into, as read from cover to cover." - Ariadne
Graham Pryor is Associate Director of the Digital Curation Centre, the UK's leading centre of expertise on digital data curation supporting the HE community.
"The book provides a good introduction to RDM, but would also be of use to those readers very experienced in all matters to do with research data curation and management. I was impressed by the clarity and liveliness of the prose- inevitably any book on a relatively “dry” topic will have stretches of unexciting or technical prose, but this book’s style of writing is in general mercifully free from this problem. I would recommend it for middle to senior library managers who are looking to dip their toe into the murky waters of RDM; senior university managers wanting a broad overview of RDM policy and practice; and to those already well-versed in RDM matters but wanting to know about recent developments in RDM, as well as its future." - SCONUL Focus