Academic library's leadership and stakeholder involvement in research data services

Abstract

AbstractIn the last decade, academic libraries have made progress in establishing themselves as hubs and leaders for research data services on campus. The importance of collaborating with a range of institutional stakeholders, such as the research or information technology office, as well as external partners in developing and delivering research data policy, services, and infrastructure, has been well‐documented. However, there is less evidence as to how libraries play a crucial role in leadership, whether other stakeholders’ involvement actually makes a difference and if so, how they make a difference. As such, the goal of this study is to explore the academic library's leadership role in research data services and how collaboration and partnership with stakeholders and interested parties might impact the maturity of the research data services the library provides. The secondary analysis of the existing survey data found that libraries offer more mature services when they take a primary responsibility in developing the services. It also found internal stakeholders’ and external partners’ involvement leads to more mature services in the selected activities.