Research data management and the evolving role of academic libraries

What happens to research if the data behind it goes missing or can’t be accessed? That’s a scary thought and an ordeal many researchers may have actually encountered. As more studies rely on extensive datasets and open science becomes the norm, making sure research data is safe, shareable, and easy to reuse is becoming a top priority. That’s where Research Data Management or RDM takes center stage. And this is exactly where academic libraries can make a big difference. 

Librarians today are doing a lot more than curating resources. They’re helping research teams follow data policies, keep things accessible, and work more efficiently by staying on top of data management, including organizing it, sharing it, and keeping it safe for the long run. Many academic libraries are stepping up, adding new services to support data management at different stages of the research process, becoming key players in the research world. Let's take a closer look at what their role in RDM. 

1. Collaborating across campus and institutions 

When it comes to RDM, it’s not just one team doing all the work. Across a university, many groups are involved in planning and delivering these services. Librarians are right in the middle of it all—not just providing access to data resources, but also helping connect the dots between departments and groups such as IT professionals, research offices, and administrative bodies. By building such partnerships, librarians support an ecosystem where effective data management strategies and best practices are shared and implemented across departments, roles, and even institutions. 

2. Training and assistance for researchers 

Managing research data isn’t always intuitive, and librarians can make a real difference by helping researchers, students, and faculty build the skills needed for effective data management. As knowledge hubs on campus, libraries can offer training in many forms: workshops, interactive sessions, and online resources that cover everything from writing data management plans to organizing, describing, sharing, and publishing data. They can also guide researchers on storage and preservation best practices, including metadata standards, file formats, and backup strategies. By promoting data literacy and raising awareness of available support, librarians empower researchers to handle their data with confidence. And since many still find RDM confusing or time-consuming, libraries should also take the lead in making these services more visible and approachable. 

3. Offering policy guidance and compliance support 

Creating effective RDM policies isn’t something that can be done in vacuum. It takes input and collaboration from different departments across the university. While university leadership usually sets the overall direction, it’s just as important to bring in feedback from across the campus. Getting support from researchers, administrators, and other staff is key to building comprehensive policies. Libraries can take the lead in starting these important conversations, making sure their expertise helps shape the final policies. By leveraging their strong relationships across departments, libraries are well placed to bring together different viewpoints and enable the creation of robust RDM policies, making sure the process is inclusive and balanced. 

It doesn’t just stop at the campus. This kind of policy work often means listening to a wide range of voices beyond their own institution. Partnering with other institutions and learning from what’s worked elsewhere helps libraries adapt successful strategies to their own context and create policies that really fit local needs. 

4. Facilitating technology 

Librarians play a key helping researchers navigate tricky areas like copyright, licensing, and intellectual property. They can offer support that spans the entire data lifecycle—making sure data can be discovered, securely stored, and accessed over time using reliable solutions like dedicated servers or cloud platforms. But it’s not just about infrastructure. Librarians can also promote the use of consistent metadata standards and tools, which make storing, finding, and sharing data much smoother. By staying on top of new technologies and weaving them into library services, they’re helping raise the bar for data management—and turning libraries into essential hubs for all things RDM. 

Conclusion 

By adapting to the new practices, libraries are championing open science practices, and empowering researchers to meet funder mandates, enhance data visibility, and contribute to a sustainable research ecosystem. And facilitating RDM services sets librarians up to significantly impact their research communities. This shift marks a significant transformation in how libraries contribute to the academic research enterprise, from being collection managers to becoming essential players in the data-driven research environment.