National Status of Data Management: Current Research in Policy and Education

This panel features updates from three interrelated projects examining the data management ecosystem to determine requirements and best practices in policy, graduate education, and professional enrichment. The University of North Texas Libraries’ DataRes project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is examining the policy landscape at top research institutions across the nation and the role of information professionals in data management efforts. The UNT College of Information’s iCAMP project, also funded by the IMLS, is developing a competency-based, online graduate academic certificate program in data curation and data management for a hybrid audience of information professionals and disciplinary researchers and scholars. The Council on Library and Information Resources’ Sloan Foundation–funded research on scholarly practitioners in data curation builds on an existing successful program that brings scholars into libraries, the CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries. Researchers conducted an environmental scan of the state of data curation education, and an anthropological study of the development needs of research professionals thrust into data-curation roles. Together, these projects offer both a snapshot of the current state of data management policy and education and offer prescriptive insights on best practices for this rapidly evolving field.