Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?

Abstract

The evolution of scholarly research raises questions regarding the role of research libraries in the 21st century. As information and data have taken on new forms, researchers and libraries alike have adapted their skills and services to reflect changes in how information and research are created and conducted, disseminated, and preserved – throughout shifting social and philosophical paradigms as well as in response to emerging technologies. As such, librarianship is an ever-changing field that has advanced to include data management skills as a core competency. Unfortunately, perceptions of the LIS field have not kept up with the pace of its development. Involvement of librarians in data capture and management remains a struggle because those producing data in universities may not necessarily associate their activities with the library – unless there is a system in place that makes it mandatory for them to use a library or other repository in place, e.g. grant funding or promotion requirements.

This calls for information specialists such as data and academic librarians to intervene and provide guidance in numerous areas such as: information management, classification, and basic data literacy skills. The tendency in academe to avoid librarians in the research process is a missed opportunity for many researchers but also requires that librarians step up and make their voices and potentialities be known.