A research data management readiness training toolkit

Abstract

The data revolution is spurring new technologies and innovations on a daily basis, and this vast changing environment is leading to considerable changes to the services and products rendered in academic libraries and universities. Inevitably, this has led to a shortage of skills and capacity among library staff, research office staff, as well as, researchers to be able to navigate the data environment. To address this shortage the University of Pretoria Library Services developed a Research Data Management Readiness Training Toolkit. This Toolkit currently comprises two streams. A range of workshops focusing on the fundamentals of research data management (e.g. a workshop on What is Research Data Management (RDM), which includes an overview of the research data lifecycle and the potential roles of different role players and Jargon busting, as well as, a workshop on the University RDM Policy and related procedures, which focuses on the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders across the university throughout the research data lifecycle). The second stream includes a range of workshops focusing on the essentials of research data management (e.g. a workshop on Data Management Plans and tools, a Workshop on Data Citation, a workshop on Metadata Standards for Data, a workshop on Data Repositories, and a workshop on Data Curation and Preservation). This presentation gives an overview of this toolkit, how it was developed, its content, the processes that were followed, as well as the impact it has had at the University of Pretoria, and the potential application of this at other African universities. The presentation concludes with an overview of a planned third stream of data intensive workshops that will include, inter alia, topics such as Data cleaning, Data analysis and Data visualisation tools.