1 Cambridge University Library Incremental ‘a step by step approach to improving and increasing research data curation practice’ Catharine Ward, Cambridge University Library JISC MRD Progress Workshop, 17 th May, 2010 Lesley Freiman, Grant Young and Elin Stangeland (Cambridge) Sarah Jones and Joy Davidson (Glasgow)

2 Cambridge University Library Scoping Study  Archaeology  Chemistry  Engineering  English  Public Health  Biology / SPRI Based on HATII electronic records study Semi-structured interviews Similar departments to allow comparison

3 Cambridge University Library Issues and concerns Creating and managing files Storage and backup Preservation and reuse Data Sharing Existing guidance and training

4 Cambridge University Library Creating and Managing Data “There is a professor here who has never deleted an message in his life”. "They’ve always had a common staff network drive and it’s always been the bane of everyone’s lives to find stuff on it." "The volume of data produced makes maintenance a bit like drinking from a firehose."

5 Cambridge University Library Storage & Backup “Research groups tend to run their own little fiefdom. "I just back everything up onto data sticks. I didn’t even know you could back-up to servers." "People will work at home, so things will be stored locally and shuffled between machines on memory sticks".

6 Cambridge University Library Preservation and reuse "You don’t know how long a JPEG format is going to remain accessible and useable to people." "I keep a defunct Macintosh under my desk solely for the purpose of being able to use file-maker pro 2.0, in order to look at a catalogue that my dead PhD supervisor created of manuscripts in the UL in 1995." "How do you decide what can be deleted as it’s all a record - I’m not confident to make that decision."

7 Cambridge University Library Data sharing "The biggest issue to overcome is personal investment -- it's like giving away your baby!" “it requires a lot of work to make data accessible and understandable”

8 Cambridge University Library On existing guidance & training “The policy was huge and not very clear. It took a few attempts to understand it, whereas you just want a quick yes/no answer.” “There’s no point being told all this stuff when you’re not using it because – I only learn how to do things when I need to know.” "The whole thing is terribly dull."

9 Cambridge University Library Key findings Main concerns not discipline-specific Similar concerns voiced at Cambridge and Glasgow Simple issues often cause problems

10 Cambridge University Library Plans & Recommendations

11 Cambridge University Library Making help easier to find We will create simple, centralised data management portals including categorised links and pithy notes to… Existing local and external resources New resources created for the project

12 Cambridge University Library University of Edinburgh’s Information Services portal MIT Libraries’ Data Management and Publishing webpages UKDA guidance pages

13 Cambridge University Library Making help easier to understand Produce simple, visual guidance on creating, storing and managing data e.g. Fact sheets, FAQs, flow diagrams, checklists

14 Cambridge University Library Cooks Illustrated WikiHow.com

15 Cambridge University Library Offering practical training resources with discipline-specific examples Stand alone slides/resources that can be dropped into other courses – train the trainer Collaborate with existing course within departments Work with researchers to document their experiences, video case studies etc. Provide online training materials and tutorials Create/host screencasts for anytime access to training

16 Cambridge University Library

17 Cambridge University Library Offer tailored advice and partnering Raise awareness of existing support staff and services through data management portals and outreach Offer on-to-one support to help researchers define best approach for their context Build links with research office to point researchers to relevant support when apply for grants

18 Cambridge University Library Work towards the development of a comprehensive data management infrastructure Cambridge University Library HATII Digital Preservation Scoping Study Many local initiatives, projects and exemplars… Enlighten

19 Cambridge University Library QUESTIONS?