What is Data Literacy?
What is data literacy? Why is data literacy important? Data literacy is “the ability to read, create, and communicate data as information” (Wikipedia). The evolutionary role of the librarian in offering data literacy services — including discussion about the skills needed by students and researchers for data literacy and development of effective instructional content, methods, and formats — continues to evolve. What is clear is that data literacy services offer librarians an opportunity to expand their role in the research enterprise within an institution.
As research funders in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada are increasingly mandating open access to research data, researchers’ responsibilities towards managing their data are changing. Researchers are being required to improve and enhance their research data management skills and practices. By providing research data literacy services and instructional programs, librarians can engage with the biomedical research community within their institutions in new ways.
…
The articles in this issue of the JESLB are designed to offer some guidance to those librarians interested in offering research data literacy services in their institutions. These articles highlight practical resources and strategies for offering one or more in-person or online courses to researchers, students and librarians on the topic of best practices for scientific research data management.
…
Full-Length Papers
Planning Data Management Education Initiatives: Process, Feedback, and Future Directions
Christopher Eaker
A Spider, an Octopus, or an Animal Just Coming into Existence? Designing a Curriculum for Librarians to Support Research Data Management
Andrew M. Cox, Eddy Verbaan, and Barbara Sen
An Analysis of Data Management Plans in University of Illinois National Science Foundation Grant Proposals
William H. Mischo, Mary C. Schlembach, and Megan N. O’Donnell
Initiating Data Management Instruction to Graduate Students at the University of Houston Using the New England Collaborative Data Management Curriculum
Christie Peters and Porcia Vaughn
…
